Respond to the last movie you watched

[1SO]

Memories of Murder

When a more-experienced but younger Seoul detective in Seo Tae-yoon comes in, he finds he has to work around the two bumbling idiot locals to try and get any semblance of detective's work done.

This is the film for me. On my first watch, I had a similar problem with the methods of the local police and that it’s played for absurd comedy, but I’ve never seen a manhunt film where the killer’s greatest ally is the incompetence and inexperience of the police and their eventual realization of that is one of the freshest takes on the genre ever.

[jdc]

Certainly hard to know fact from fiction when it comes to movies based on a true story. There is a habit of Korean films have introducing some kind of slap stick that seems out of place for the type of film as well as portraying the police as brutal and/or incompetent to an exaggerated level.  But then, there are the actual words of the killer that seems to confirm that the police were incompetent and he was surprised he never got caught.

I think the slapstick nature was discussed before around this film or maybe Korean films in general, I do find it a bit distracting but sort of tune it out as I don’t find the film is suppose to be funny/satire.   It is the obsession around the case and the toll that it takes that sucked me in more than focussing on the killer. 

[Bondo]

Words on Bathroom Walls

Having quit Twitter for my health over a week ago, some of my nonsense needs to find other places to go. Thus film-inspired memes will end up here I guess:


This film centers on a character Adam (Charlie Plummer), who suffers from schizophrenia, one manifestation of which is a group of three hallucinations/life advisors, one of which is played by Anna-Sophia Robb. And at the risk of offending Sam's "don't get horny on main" policy, I'd have to think twice about taking pills that do away with that presence in my life, however much she were a figment of my imagination. Of course, for Adam, a leading inspiration in this push is a real life female of interest, Maya (Taylor Russell). But there are no easy answers to mental illnesses and we follow Adam's efforts to balance his aspirations against his illness.

Of course, one of the late Twitter controversies that predicated my decision that that hellsite was not a great venue was the exhausting response to Sia's film with an autistic character played by a non-autistic actress. In that context, I was pondering if there was an outcry about someone who, as far as I know, doesn't suffer from schizophrenia playing someone who does here. I don't really know where we draw the line of acceptable acting and not acceptable acting. Like, authentic casting of underrepresented groups is a very admirable thing, but praising that doesn't necessarily necessitate condemning not doing that. As much as I think that trans roles should strive to be filled by trans actors at this point, those older films that cast cis actors played a role in getting society to a place where this is possible, and provided they are good treatments, they should still be considered good films, not retroactively consigned to the dustbins of history. This film certainly tries to leave us with a positive/accepting view, which is fine enough. I can't speak to how well it presents the experience of those who are afflicted with schizophrenia so it's hard for me to evaluate whether it is effective in that sense. As a narrative it feels kind of predictable/pat in terms of broader plot arcs, which holds it back. Probably best to think of it as kind of a fantasy film, there were moments that reminded me of Ink, rather than a fully literal presentation, though it doesn't narratively make it one.

[etdoesgood]

I think the slapstick nature was discussed before around this film or maybe Korean films in general, I do find it a bit distracting but sort of tune it out as I don’t find the film is suppose to be funny/satire.   It is the obsession around the case and the toll that it takes that sucked me in more than focussing on the killer.

I came across several reviews that mention it as satire. It does not play that way to me, either. I also often like Bong's use of absurdity, slap stick in his films, it livens them up, and he usually is able to manage that with the more dramatic aspects of his film. I think 5 of the other 6, excluding Mother, are pretty clearly satires, so maybe it's just assumed it's what he's always up to. However, I think if you read interviews with him, he seems to downplay the satire and just focus on the characters themselves, as opposed to what they represent. He's hard to pin down, but I do love most of his work.

[dusty bottoms]

'Mank' (2020)

Dir.: David Fincher.

Looks pretty awesome on the big screen. Some brilliant photography, set design and costume design. Pretty good cast and that era of Old Hollywood is captured perfectly. I'm not sure it's the 5 star masterpiece some critics are making it out to be but it's entertaining. The story of Herman J. Mankiewicz is told well for the most part with his struggles to write the screenplay of Citizen Kane the main theme. I did feel there were some historical inaccuracies towards the end, although it all just adds to the mystery of the movie.

7.6/10

[dusty bottoms]

'The Turin Horse' (2011)

Directed by Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzky

I just got lost in this film. In a good way. Utterly transfixed by the 2 family members struggling to survive in a shack while a gale blows outside. It's mesmerizingly beautiful and minimal, just like other Tarr films I've seen. It's a very pessimistic film - most things in it refuse to work or live at some point (probably not a coincidence seeing as Tarr said this would be his final film). And the opening words state that Nietzsche's mind effectively refused to work after seeing a horse being flogged in the streets of Turin.

Some may wonder why anyone would sit through nearly 3 hours of slow zooms, pans and leaves blowing, and barely a plot. Some may even call this type of cinema pretentious -  but that is Tarr's philosophical nature. The answer is because it's pure cinema. Pure austere, unforgiving visual poetry. Like Tarkovsky and others that came before it, it is the art of film-making shoved in our faces.

9/10

[etdoesgood]

I still wonder if I wasn't in the wrong state of mind to approach Satantango, though the cat scene probably prevents me from ever reconsidering it. Is there animal cruelty in this film? Or is it just in the title?

[MartinTeller]

Not really. The horse struggles a bit but I don’t recall any instances of it being abused.

[Bondo]

Small Axe: Red, White and Blue

After an interlude in Lovers Rock, Small Axe comes back with intent in Red, White and Blue starring John Boyega as a man who joins the police hoping to affect their relationship with his community of Afro-Caribbean immigrants who, as we saw especially in Mangrove, face an intense campaign of arbitrary violence. It is an interesting exploration (with as much depth as you get in this slightly shorter format of under 90 minutes) of the pull between his community's antipathy and his change ambition, and between the way the force values him as a token but in other ways is willing to hold him back. All of this is expressed wonderfully by Boyega.

Thinking more broadly about policing reform, there's a lot of critique about police sticking together too much to protect bad apples, or at least not specifically speaking out against them. But like, why should they feel the brunt of stepping out in a system that prevents the bad apples from getting fired. It seems like making external accountability possible is the key for the internal reforms to really take hold.

[etdoesgood]

Hana (Hana yori mo naho)

I figured, minor Kore-eda from the library, feeling good on a Friday night, let's check it. I probably needed a clearer head for this one, but damn, this is not minor anything, it's a fantastic revisionist samurai film with at least ten characters worth your attention and affection. And since it's a library rental, no real hurry to take it back, so I think I'll give it one more viewing before it gets returned.