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#not really a film review

poirott · 7 months

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A Haunting in Venice (2023), dir. Kenneth Branagh

Poirot had been wondering, while eating his dinner, what it was that was driving Mrs. Oliver to visit him, and why she was so doubtful about what she was doing. Was she bringing him some difficult problem, or was she acquanting him with a crime? As Poirot knew well, it could be anything with Mrs. Oliver. The most commonplace things or the most extraordinary things. They were, as you might say, all alike to her. She was worried, he thought. Ah well, Hercule Poirot thought to himself, he could deal with Mrs. Oliver. He always had been able to deal with Mrs. Oliver. On occasion she maddened him. At the same time he was really very much attached to her. They had shared many experiences and experiments together. - Agatha Christie, Elephants Can Remember

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avatar-state-kate · 10 months

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Growing up my mom always fall asleep when we would go to the movies. I remember shaking her awake at the end credits, asking her when she remembers nodding off so I can fill her in on what she missed.

Wes Anderson’s new film asteroid city has a story within a story, we watch the stage play in colour as the writer cast and crew develop the production in black and white. During one of these black and white segments the writer thinks through a scene we will ultimately not see unfold in the play proper- a town together asleep sharing a dream.

Films have often been described this way, a shared dream. A room full of strangers lulled to sleep as the lights dim, and before our eyes a dazzling show of colour and sound occurs- we share the dreaming.

My mother often describes scenes in films that never actually happened, scenarios she dreamed up as she fell into a nap in the theatre seat. A private dream. We bring our own dreams to the movies.

One of the characters in the stage play steps off of the stage, out of the world of colour and into the real world of black and white, meeting with the director he asks- am I doing it right? What does it mean?

Leaving the theatre I leave my phone on silent in my bag, for just a moment longer, taking my time to awake. I could search the film tag and have all my questions answered, but I’d rather sit in my curiosity longer- maybe it doesn’t mean anything, dreams often don’t, but the experience of having one always gives us something

#bit of an odd film review but needless to say I really enjoyed it #love the meta commentary #I do in fact think this film says a lot but the folks behind me had no clue- just out right saying idk what any of that meant but I liked it #asteroid city #wes anderson #film #film review #movies

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cyberantiquities · 2 months

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"I enjoyed watching Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (2023), for the most part. It was fun. It’s the sort of film which if, say, four years ago you’d described its existence to me – I would have been amazed that such a cultural artifact could really exist. It is so intensely saturated, oversaturated, with images and dynamics which evoke the GIFs and the screencaps, the quotations, the ‘what if there was a movie like this’ posts which, by scrapbooking the fragments of less-satisfying wholes, paint pictures of ideal and longed for pieces of media on platforms like Tumblr."

I wrote about my impressions of Saltburn and the way in which it works as a satire, in comparison to The Secret History.

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#saltburn #saltburn 2023 #emerald fennell #the secret history #donna tartt #writers on tumblr #writing #blog post #essay #film review #film critique #book review #writeblr #filmblr #bookblr #I don't really want to be mean and bait people so I hope my tagline makes it clear #I don't like d*rk ac*demia.

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cadmium-free · 6 months

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halloween 2023 watchlist & my reviews (favourites in orange)

#movie mondays #film #halloween watchlist #i watched titane but didn't really review it & i skipped train to busan so i got 25 out of my planned 26 films this month <3 #i really liked we're all going to the world's fair but it didnt have as much of an impact on me as the ones i highlighted as favourites #happy Halloween babyyy

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apriiciitty · 4 months

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SALTBURN DESTROYED ME BECAUSE IT LEFT MY HEAD FULL OF THOUGHTS.

the problem with me is, once I’ve watched a movie or series etc, I can’t just simply shut up it.

so here is a small ranting;

saltburn, cinematically speaking, was like a mixture of baz luhrmann dropped somewhere in the early 2006 and mid 90s.

specifically, the whole theme/vibe (forgive me I don’t know how to describe the atmosphere) reminded me a lot of the ‘party’ scene in Romeo and Juliet 1996 and (I hope some of yall watched it) the ad baz luhrmann did for H&M in 2017 ‘the secret life of flowers’

but it was a chaotic mess. you didn’t know what to expect, you were not very sure what was about to come because the atmosphere felt to be filled and heavy with thoughts and moments.

like you could sense that Oliver was up to something but it wasn’t clear enough what.

every guess i had while watching this movie, came out to be mostly wrong or didn’t went as expected.

the ‘thriller’ element was missing in my opinion because of the ‘lack of act’ HOWEVER the psychological element was there from second one.

Ooooog there is so much to talk about but overall, Oliver was a disturbing figure.

#saltburn #jacob elordi #barry keoghan #film #movie rant #felix catton #oliver quick #baz luhrmann #2006 #90s #ranting #movies #review?#not really #my head is full of thoughts

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blackandwhlteaesthetlc · 1 year

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Florence was a guest on Zach Braff’s podcast to discuss her career and their new film A Good Person, which is out today!

I especially loved this bit at the end about her thoughts on possibly Directing films one day:

“I’d love to be a Director. I think I need to learn a bit more. I need to soak it up. It’s such a tricky position to have, and to lead, and to be a leader on a film set. You really have to be-You have to know your shit. And if you don’t a lot of people can get, you know, twisted up by that. And I think, for me, I don’t want to go in and not know and then affect an actor badly…It’s something that you really should go in knowing that you can do it. So I think I’m just going to do a bit more learning.”

#quote presented without further comment #I just love her #I was so on the fence about seeing the movie but the reviews are swaying me to watch it in theaters #and I really do hope she considers directing further on in her career #she also talked about her role as a producer on A Good Person and it sounds like she would make some really fantastic choices #as a filmmaker #I also loved how she appreciates fans of Midsommar but acknowledges we’re all weird 😂#this was your daily dose of Florence Pugh for today :)#florence pugh #team flo #zach braff #a good person #film talk #Spotify

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toonstarterz · 1 year

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I enjoyed Wendell & Wild more in retrospect.

Yeah, it's kinda clunky, and not exactly as emotionally heavy as Coraline, but it's also thematically rich and darkly humorous in a way that very much earns that PG-13 rating.

Also Kat is phenomenal.

#wendell & wild #kat #very mini review #i really want more films by selick

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focsle · 8 months

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I whine about most movies having a runtime of over 2 hours and yet all my fav books tend to be long dense weird ones where the #1 complaint from people who didn’t like them is ‘nothing really happened’. IDK MAN. MULTITUDES.

I simply think that most movies could stand to have 20 mins shaved off their runtimes.

#i say with my needleslly longass comic where I’m sure ppl are like ‘get to the point’#I don’t look at reviews of my book often cos that’s Not Really My Business but when people haven’t liked it it’s tended to be because #‘dense and nothing happened’ THAT IS INDEED….the sort of books I enjoy #maybe something about reading feels more like a Process and a journey and with films I tend to participate more passively…#so maybe that’s why I have different degrees of patience with them

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pearlgisa · 10 months

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qala and the style over substance argument

so, i watched qala (dir. by anvita dutt) immediately when it came out - a story that exposed the music industry and the position of women in it, especially focusing on the toxic nature of indian classical music? it was like they made the film for me (someone who's spent a good chunk of their life trained in hindustani classical music). however, i was sorely disappointed.

in essence, qala, along with other films that did commercially well that came out in bollywood last year, solidified my understanding that the audience of today's generation of movie-watchers genuinely puts style over substance and in fact, uses it as a way to defend their favourite movies from criticism. the recent resurgence of praise for om shanti om of all films, only strengthened this opinion.

my criticisms for qala are in plenty, yet i will choose to expand on the ones that strike out the most to me, all of which range from the lightest to the harshest criticism:

the choice of music

the acting

the direction + writing

the handling of the serious issues that are the main theme of the film

before you read ahead, please know that there are spoilers.

in indian classical music, there are two distinct forms: hindustani (or, north indian) and carnatic (or south indian) music. each have their differences and similarities and even someone who hasn't trained can tell them apart upon listening. within hindustani music - which is the genre of music that qala learns from her mother - you have many different styles of singing, ranging from shastriya sangeet (classical form of singing) to laghu sangeet (semi-classical and sometimes, light music). of course, this categorization also has its roots in religion and caste. shastriya sangeet has forms of singing like dhrupad (the oldest form and a strictly devotional medium), khyal (the most common one, telling tales or speaking of human emotions), bhajan (also a devotional medium), etc.

laghu sangeet has forms of classical music like the thumri, a form of singing popularized and invented by courtesans. the lyrics were sensual, romantic and more explicit. of course, owing to these, they were looked down upon. even the british had a huge role in diminishing the status of indian women performers. the "other woman" concept was specifically one that they propagated and the rise of the "perfect housewife" phenomena began since the seventeenth century. the extreme effect of that? the courtesans lost out on their patrons and were forced into prostitution.

hence, that was the primary history behind qala's mother, urmila, shaming her into never being a performer, i.e, in a more derogatory term, a "singing girl". a courtesan, essentially. which is accurate, considering the film is set in the 1940s. if a girl was too "out there in the world", i.e, her achievements being publicised in newspapers or her getting recognition for her academics, her future marital prospects were ruined. and the "shame" that befell the family if she was learning music or dance was worse. a significant number of the prominent female musicians that emerged from this era of pre-independence to post-independence were unmarried. or they had many patrons and salacious rumours regarding their love life were in plenty. the film pakeezah (1972) explores such themes quite well. and the many renditions and retellings of devdas also serve as a good example of the stature of performing women.

however, it's the music itself where it goes wrong for me. the choice of songs as well as qala's singing (of course, all of qala's songs are sung by the amazing sireesha bhagavatula), is in a style all too similar to laghu singing. the years of egregious training, no matter how much her mother dismissed her, would've developed a voice which would've sounded a lot more like what a lot of classical singers would sound like, unless they were singing a lighter form of singing. and it isn't a matter of pitch or using falsetto. qala's mom is referred to as a master of qawallis, which is a sufi form of devotional singing (and comes well under hindustani music too). even the lyrics of qala's songs, while full of very obvious foreshadowing, do not match the overall orthodox classical upbringing that the film portrays.

while bhagavatula has an amazing voice well versed in classical music (especially since she sings bhajans so often), considering the time that qala was set in, you would've expected a sound similar to something along the lines of noor jehan or even roshan ara begum. instead, it sounds a lot like a mix of semi-classical instrumental with a more pop-based voice. which is easier for our generation to digest and consume, however, it comes at the cost of a sound which is very typical of the 50s-70s era of bollywood.

one that qala does right are the costumes. they do their job well. not the sets as much, which i will get into later. at some points, they are well in line with the rest of the era of the film, other times it just sticks out like a sore thumb. here's where the "symbolism" comes in.

one of the most jarring examples is the song qala sings at the first performance, a very light classical song just by the sound of the vocals. even the song jagan sings is very contemporary at its core. despite the characters having an allegedly strict, traditional schooling of music (jagan's voice is devoid of the typical heavy accent or dialects that those who are from underprivileged backgrounds tends to have), the songs at hand present a very modern take on qawallis, despite bollywood being a flourishing ground for many iconic qawallis. therefore, the compositions sometimes falter at some points specifically because of the vocal choices. choosing to do away with alaaps, especially in qala's part, less aakar and more bariki, are all signficant details that feel jarring to someone who's lived in the world of classical music as long as qala. otherwise, there are some signature sounds retained from the era that the film is set in.

and while still on the topic of singing, a very important issue that i find least addressed is the acting of it. despite there being little vocal variations in the compositions, the actors don't show that they are singing. and in the film specifically revolving around music, that's an extremely important detail that i find amiss. hardly opening the mouth, the movement of the lips, the posture as well as the hand gestures (yes, a very important detail!), are all obvious flaws. a recent film that does that does those details well is the disciple (2020). the first scene of urmila teaching qala singing displays urmila wearing an elaborate piece of nose jewellery that covers half of her mouth, and that's when they're doing rehyaas (practice), not a performance. it's huge details like these that don't sell the film to me.

the acting is quite underwhelming and here is where disagreements with my opinions might enter. i find trupti dimri's rendition of qala extremely, for lack of politer words, exasperating. she tends to show the same expressions for all of her problems, i.e., there is no great difference between her feeling anger or feeling despair or feeling depressed or feeling cheated or just plain exhaustion. qala's character is a complex one and difficult to act, which is a concession i will give, however, the hype around her is a little unnerving when the audience is given such an unremarkable delivery of dialogues and emotion. it comes off as school-play acting at times. swastika mukherjee, who plays urmila, is quite two-note with her acting, which sometimes suits her character and sometimes just feels very low-effort. babil khan has his moments, yet there is such less versatility. you'd think the babil of qala's hallucinations and the one who existed in real life would have some distinct characteristics (which they do), but they never come off as that. it feels so half-hearted at times.

the whole point of symbolism is that it's subtle at heart and not on the face. qala has on-the-face symbolism, which is an irony in itself. the black swan scene, the frosty room in the beginning, the ghostly jagan, etc. almost made me bump my nose into a wall. it comes off as pretentious at best, as if the viewer is stupid. it is also very off-putting in some scenes. for example, the black swan scene - there is very little buildup and it feels very predictable in the sense that "it all goes downhill from here". however, there is one scene which i like, which is the gargoyle one (a very traumatic scene, for those who recall, it is the one right before ghodey pe sawaar gets recorded for the final time). i think that is the most effective filmmaking in the entire film. the best thing about symbolism is always the subtlety. it makes the viewer keep coming back to pick up on something they might have missed in the first watch, it helps them pick up the pieces along the way instead of being able to tell the twists thirty minutes before they are revealed.

and one of the most egregious crimes of the entire film is the direction. here is where we get a little more technical (but just briefly, do not worry). the way it cuts from one scene to the next is like watching a poorly edited reel put out by the team of an out-of-touch marketing firm. the editing could have been better at many places. the writing falls flat specifically when it comes to the characters. i'm pretty sure on paper, the script must've been a delight to read. the story has so much potential - considering that it's based on two books, where there might've been even more depth given to the characters - it isn't new in any way but it offers a different, feminist perspective of the indian music industry. yet, the characters are paper thin on screen - in their ambitions, psychology and sociology. hence, urmila suddenly turning a new leaf in the last ten minutes of the film is something that feels wrong, because all along, she has been portrayed as a heartless mother. qala's actions make sense because her character has nearly always been rooted in self pity and rage. jagan is nothing without music. there is very little dimension to them apart from me summarizing their characters in one sentence with less than thirty words each.

that is why, the film feels even more half-hearted when it speaks of the issues that it centers around. all of these elements add up and make for a tiring watch. i gave qala a second chance, to be fair and omitted some of my pettier criticisms, yet the more serious ones remain. to a certain extent, it does aestheticize depression, which i have a huge issue with. however, baby steps as always with bollywood. it's no dear zindagi considering it is set in a different period with a different ending. however, the writing of the characters could've been so much better. a little more exploration of urmila's intentions would've given her so much depth. a few more interactions between qala and jagan might've given qala the chance to befriend him and not just see him a rival, thus intensifying the decision she took. the characters do not feel human, they are strictly white or black and qala being the anti-hero feels very off since it requires better writing and a stronger plot. and of course, much better acting.

however, qala re-opened up discussion of a nearly-always forgotten discourse - that of the position of women in music. and for achieving that bare minimum, i give it full credit. however, when there have been films with much better writing, characterization and cinematography in bollywood itself, with a similar theme, qala needs to be seen for what it contains than what it displays. just because it glitters, doesn't mean it's gold.

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artemis-howl · 3 months

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I feel so lucky that almost all of my Sundance screenings this year have had a Q&A with the filmmakers, but one thing I have noticed is that almost all of the audience questions are coming from men, even when the movie is largely about a female specific experience.

I'm not sure why this is, if women are under-confident or men are over-confident or if men just understand the films less than women and need to have it explained to them afterward lol.

Idk, personally I don't usually have questions right after the film is finished I need some time to digest. And I also feel bad about imposing on the filmmakers like they told us what they wanted us to know in the film and it seems presumptuous to ask for more information after they put so much work into crafting a narrative.

#maybe I'll post some short reviews after my last two movies tomorrow #but I've seen some really good films mostly from female writer/directors #mine

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