Category: Movie Reviews

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 97

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

Today marks the final day of my interlude between completing my Oscar viewing and the beginning of SIFF. Before jumping into today’s feature, which was another choice of a film that I’d been wanting to watch for a while, I want to talk a bit about my plan for the next 11 days of the festival. Rather than an informal blog post at the end of each day like I’m doing now, I’m hoping to write something more akin to mini reviews for the films that I watch. I’ll likely aggregate a day’s worth under this post category for continuity’s sake, but I won’t be doing double work.

Russian Ark (2002, Dir. Aleksandr Sokurov)

I don’t believe I’ve ever felt less cultured by a film before. Aleksandr Sokurov’s technical tour de force is a love letter to Russian Empire and the art housed in the Saint Petersburg Winter Palace. Taking place over a 96-minute single shot, the film traverses eras from the 1800s to present day as the palace is used for operas, a ceremonial imperial audience, a ball, and museum attendance. Each of these moments represent an important moment in Russian history that I wish my subpar US school system prepared me to appreciate more.

More than anything else, what stands out when watching Russian Ark is the spectacle of it all. The single take gimmick is the showiest aspect of the spectacle. As the Steadicam moves at a rather deliberate pace, the impressiveness of the single shot filmmaking is less about any singular difficult moment and rather at the grandiose scope of it all. The final 20 minutes in particular as the camera weaves through hundreds of dancing extras all meticulously costumed for a period ball is breathtaking in it’s beauty. When the music finally ends and the hundreds of actors all proceed to exit the palace bringing the camera with them, it’s as if the film is taking a bow with one final acknowledgement of the technical feat that was accomplished over the last hour and a half. Even with a lacking at best knowledge of the Russian Empire’s history, these moments sold the occasionally opaque film for me.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 96

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

Today again I found myself with a little decision paralysis in picking what to watch. With the entire cinematic library as an option, it was hard to know where to begin. I only have three days between the conclusion of Oscar viewing and the start of SIFF, so like yesterday I chose a film that was of personal interest even if it wouldn’t be considered a blind sport by any traditional metric. The main difference between today’s viewing and yesterday’s is that yesterday’s film was the last film I hadn’t seen by a director, while today’s film was the second I’ve watched from a director I’ve want to see more from.

Hotel by the River (2019, Dir. Hong Sang-soo)

Hotel by the River Review: Hong Sang-soo Almost Makes a Rom-Com | IndieWire

As blockbusters stuffed to the gills with loud action set pieces occupy an ever-increasing market share of the world’s films, I’m thankful that directors like Hong Sang-soo are around to create wonderful works of slow cinema. Movies that the most people would turn off after five minutes from boredom are frequently my favorites. The lethargic pacing creates a meditative experience that enhances my personal viewing experience. Hong builds on the natural meditative qualities of the film’s pace with a complete lack of non-diegetic music and black and white cinematography. This allows for limited distractions for the audience encouraging self-reflection.

While the specifics of the story, the little that there is, is largely unimportant the themes are the heart of the film those being fear of change. In this way, the hotel reflects a purgatory where the characters hide from progress. Ko Young-hwan (Gi Ju-bong) has been staying for them for two weeks and suffers from visions of death and creative blockage. A-reum (Kim Min-hee) fakes a burn injury and is distraught over a recent breakup. Both characters are visited by friends and family, but others are unable to convince them to movie on. When Ko Young-hwan is forced to leave the purgatorial hotel before he’s ready, he retaliates in a definitive way. Hotel by the River was wonderful experience for viewers with the patience to appreciate its minutia.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 95

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

After almost a month straight of watching Oscar shortlisted or nominated films, I almost didn’t know what to do with myself today. With no feeling of obligation to watch any specific thing, I chose to cross off a film from my personal list. It’s not especially a blind spot because I don’t think it’s seen as a seminal piece of the cinematic landscape, but it was the only film I had yet to watch by a director I appreciate more and more with each additional film’s first viewing or re-watch of any of his other works.

Millennium Actress (2001, Dir. Satoshi Kon)

Millennium Actress (2001) directed by Satoshi Kon • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

We’ll never know how much amazing cinema we lost with the untimely passing of Satoshi Kon. He only made four feature films before unexpectedly passing away from pancreatic cancer at the age of 46, but each one is brilliant in its own way. Much of what makes Kon’s films so spectacular is the editing in his films. He makes frequent use of match cuts to blur scenes and realities together. This combined with shot durations shorter than physically possible lends a frenetic energy to each of his works.

Millennium Actress makes clear use of this cinematic signature by blending an aging actress’s life story with the films that she starred in. When the presumed flashback is first betrayed as a scene from one of her films, the speed of the story begins a constant acceleration as each film receives slightly less time, and the barriers between filmography and memory blur. While this could come across as muddled and confusing in search of the character’s truth, this is not a fault of Kon’s. Rather, the muddled events between Chiyoko Fujiwara’s career and life reflect the duality of her life. Satoshi Kon’s style works perfectly to express the complexities of the human experience in this mock biopic.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 94

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Normally I’m still finishing up watching the Oscar nominees as late as the morning of the ceremony, but today a full three weeks before this year’s event, I’ve finished watching everything on the lists. I don’t believe that I started substantially ahead of any prior year, but rather the combination of this film watching project and no new releases in theaters has kept me singularly focused on this set of films.

Greyhound (2020, Dir. Doug Roland)

Critique du film « Greyhound » : court ? Oui. Passionnant ? Et comment ! - digitec

I appreciated this much more than I thought I would. Much of my Oscar viewing this year has had me considering on the cinema landscape has changed in my lifetime. The Oscar bait picture, while not completely dead has no real room anymore. Within the first 10 minutes of the film, I was worried that Greyhound was going to fall into that trap as a film out of time. In those minutes, Captain Krause (Tom Hanks) and Evelyn (Elisabeth Shue) discuss their shared love and plans for the future. With this framing, I anticipated a 90s style sprawling love story through a lens of war, but after this initial scene, the romance component was dropped for the remainder of the film for all intents and purposes.

Instead of relying on the schmaltz set up in the initial scene, the film relies on 80 plus minutes of continuous tense set pieces that are as exhausting to watch as they are for the characters. This relentless pacing is what elevates Greyhound beyond the Oscar bait premise. By staying so one note and continuously elevated, the film takes on an almost experimental stance eliminating much of the three-act structure for continuous action. And while it doesn’t quite succeed on that level, its uniqueness is much appreciated.

The Life Ahead (2020, Dir. Edoardo Ponti)

The Life Ahead movie review & film summary (2020) | Roger Ebert

Make that two for two on films that subverted my expectations tonight. When I viewed Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga I commented on how the films nominated exclusively for best original song are the bane of Oscar film watching. The Life Ahead, however, felt like the kind of film I would catch at an arthouse theater and attempt to champion in vain. While the nominated song was fine, the movie itself was the standout. The film is essentially a coming-of-age story for they young Momo (Ibrahima Gueye) as he’s forced to carry out the last wishes of Madame Rosa (Sophia Loren) his ailing caretaker. The emotions expressed by the film are well earned even if the film verges on melodrama at times. In full disclosure, I’m going to keep this post rather short, because the character of Lola (Abril Zamora) has me intrigued enough to write a longer piece on the film. For now, just know that the film gets a recommendation from me.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 93

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

I’m in the homestretch of my Oscar viewing of the year, and I should easily be able to finish up with time to spare before my film watching is consumed by SIFF for a week and a half. Today I chose to focus on the last untouched category that I have and watch all of the live action shorts. This is a category that has been pretty bleak since I started watching them all in 2012, and nothing I’ve seen in the years since is has lived up to 2012’s winner Curfew (Dir. Shawn Christensen), but here’s hoping for this batch to break both of those trends

Feeling Through (2020, Dir. Doug Roland)

Feeling Through short film

This was a good start for not having all of the films be incredibly bleak this year. In fact, Feeling Through was downright heartwarming. The story of a homeless teen Tereek (Steven Prescod) finding a passing meaning in life by helping Artie (Robert Tarango) a deafblind man catch his bus. In fact, the heartwarming aspect may be a bit of the film’s downfall as it short feels a little twee at times taking away from the dark reality of the characters circumstances. This doesn’t make the short bad, but it deprives if of any real commentary on Tereek’s predicament.

The Letter Room (2020, Dir. Elvira Lind)

Watch The Letter Room - Stream Full Movies Online with Topic

Okay, this one was excellent. Not quite to the level of Curfew, but The Letter Room will be a short that I remember after this Oscar season and that’s saying a lot for this category. Oscar Isaac plays Richard a corrections officer for death row who is transferred to the mail room to read through all incoming and outgoing correspondence. Through this intimate contact, the inmates are humanized for him, and he develops a connection to each of them even if only one way. The third act presence of Alia Shawkat is what really sells the short. Her vulnerability in the face of a system that destroyed her life is wonderfully realized, and further cements Richard’s viewing of inmates as humans first.

The Present (2020, Dir. Farah Nabulsi)

Farah Nabulsi on Twitter: "Our Palestinian film, The Present- one of only 2 Arab films just selected in competition at the Brussels Short Film Festival. Only 62 International films were selected from

One of the best ways to demonstrate oppression is to show how even the most mundane of activities are impacted. The Present taps into that vulnerability when setting its sight on the Israel’s apartheid of Palestine. Yusef (Saleh Bakri) and his young daughter Yasmine (Mariam Kanj) only want to bring home a new fridge as a surprise for their wife/mother but living in an apartheid state makes the simplest of actions something that has a possibility of having a gun pointed at their heads. This film emphasizes how telling a specific story can be enlightening on a universal level.

Two Distant Strangers (2020, Dir. Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe)

Two Distant Strangers' Picked Up by Netflix With April Release Date - Variety

Is the Groundhog Day (1993, Dir. Harold Ramis) framing device the best for telling a police brutality narrative? I get what filmmakers Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe were trying to accomplish. By utilizing that framework, it represents the feeling of inevitability many black men must face living in America. The talk-it-out-with-your-oppressor turn the second half of the short makes muddies the message to the point that. While even that approach doesn’t work in the end, by focusing on it so intently the message is muddied. I’m always in the market for more media on the BLM topic, I just don’t think Two Distant Strangers has a cohesive message to succeed as a short.

White Eye (2020, Dir. Tomer Shushan)

Israeli short film 'White Eye' focusing on African migrants nominated for Oscar | The Times of Israel

The single shot film has always been a wonderfully showy gimmick in filmmaking, but in 2021 we are a long way removed from Hitchcock’s Rope (1948). As the long shot has become increasingly less difficult to accomplish, though still not easy, the implementation of the technique needs to be considered less the film be showy for the sake of being showy. A long shot is normally implemented to build tension or to create a meditative state in the viewer, but White Eye doesn’t implement it for either effect. Instead, it feels like a directorial boast while leaving the underlying film feeling slight.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 92

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

For today’s films I’m closing a cultural blind-spot that I never really had much interest in closing and It’s Oscar nominated sequel. I’m not going to lie I’ve been secretly dreading this viewing experience. I know that the Borat films have a lot of critical acclaim, but they heavily utilize a type of humor that makes me extremely uncomfortable watching. Regardless I’ll consider this me attempting to broaden my horizons.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006, Dir. Larry Charles)

Borat 2'—Everything We Know About Sacha Baron Cohen's Secret Sequel

The first Borat film was about why I expected. While I’d never watched it before, much of the punchlines have been circulating for a decade and a half now so those bits offered none of the punch they may have back then, and I found the undercover set pieces just as comfortable as I thought I would. While I may have had to pause at various moments from discomfort, I do think that I understand the film. It does what all great comedy does and that’s punch up and thereby uncovers the seedy underbelly of the jingoist American culture. While the comedy works, despite my discomfort, I think the film lacks the heart to make it a really successful film. Thankfully, that shortfall was answered by its sequel.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020, Dir. Jason Woliner)

An Oral History of the Giuliani Scene in 'Borat 2' | IndieWire

The introduction of Maria Bakalova as Borat’s daughter Tutar elevates Borat Subsequent Moviefilm from a comedic novelty to a fully realized film with a character arc. The film is still as biting as ever in its unmasking of the US’s racist culture. It’s arguable that the commentary hits even harder in 2020 when America’s racist nature is more front and center than ever. Yet even with the unending commentary potential, the film focuses more on its personal story which allows the film to stand alone as cohesive story rather than only a collection of cringe inducing vignettes.

It makes sense that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm received one additional Oscar nomination over its predecessor for the supporting performance by Maria Bakalova. Her arc from gaslit teen to someone making decisions on her own brings a level of humanity that the first film was missing. Her presence even causes Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat to undergo a transformation, something lacking from the first movie. These cinematic breaks from the schtick helped make the film a less uncomfortable experience for me to watch too, but it’s the heart they provide the film that makes the sequel the superior film.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 91

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

Welcome to month four. Starting today this project becomes even more difficult for me to maintain as I need to balance my movie watching with baseball season. For opening day, work may have suffered some as it occupied most of my attention, but tonight I was able to fully dedicate my time to watching one of the few remaining Oscar nominated films this year. Though given the film I watched tonight, a distraction may have been welcome.

Hillbilly Elegy (2020, Dir. Ron Howard)

Review: A 'Hillbilly Elegy' adaptation, hold the politics

Hillbilly Elegy is the exact sort of film that I pretend no longer exists. The extremely heavy-handed family drama reminds me of films from 30 years ago, but that saccharine schmaltz sticks out like a sore thumb in today’s movie landscape. The motifs are too well trodden and the style too familiar to justify its existence in the current film landscape. As the state of cinema has evolved, I feel like Ron Howard hasn’t, and his direction which has always been unobjectionable appears tired offensively naïve in this film.

If I’m going to say something positive about the film, Glenn Close and Amy Adams are amazing as always. Their over-the-top characters and are enigmatic and fun to watch. Close’s Mamaw in particular is the most empathy inducing person in the entire film. Unfortunately, these two characters are in support of the protagonist J.D. who is played flatly by his two actors Owen Asztalos as a teenager and Gabriel Basso as a mid-20s law student. These uninspiring performances dampen the effectiveness of either actresses’ more endearing ones.

I do worry that I’m being a little too negative in this review. There’s nothing outwardly offensive about the film, but there’s also no reason for the film to exist in such a milquetoast form. As cinema evolves, a quaint throwback without a hint of irony is more grating than enjoyable.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 90

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

Three months into this project and I’m feeling pretty confident that I’ll be able to continue this process through the end of the year. This past week has been the most trying, but that’s been primarily due to my back issues and not something that should impact my ability to do this long term. Anyway, I’m closing out the third month of the year with the last best picture nomination for the year.

The Father (2021, Dir. Florian Zeller)

The 50 best films of 2020 in the US: No 5 – The Father | Anthony Hopkins | The Guardian

The Father was the last best picture film I watched because I didn’t have much hope for it. I knew absolutely nothing about the film, but I had prematurely pegged the film as the overly sentimental Oscar bait film that frequently fills out the back half of the best picture ballot. And while the topic of an aging parent dealing with dementia is prime for that overly blunt type of film, director Florian Zeller elevates the common trope to make a wonderful, best picture nominee deserving film.

The way that Zeller choses to elevate his film is by embracing the confusion of Anthony Hopkins character. Time becomes a blur in the film as moments from a single day are repeated ad nauseum with subtle changes to reframe the events. These changes are further enhanced by recasting the other character in the film from time to time. By playing with the reality of the film, the audience is forced to grapple with Anthony’s confusion as their own. Moments in the film feel like a horror movie as our protagonist is lost and confronted with people who he doesn’t recognize as family. This blend of genre works wonders for a film about one of the scariest things that can happen to someone as they age. An innovative framing improves upon a standard Oscar bait formula.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 89

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

Today was another rough one. My back remains in debilitating pain which has made even watching movies difficult, but I’m doing the best I can. Regardless, today’s entry is once again going to be on the short end as I try to write through the pain and the painkillers.

Pinocchio (2020, Dir. Matteo Garrone)

Review: Grim, beautiful 'Pinocchio' is less Disney and more Del Toro | Datebook

No film had me scratching my head more when watching the Oscar nominations this year than Pinocchio. I immediately double checked to make sure that I hadn’t missed the new Guillermo del Toro film, and I hadn’t. Instead, there was a live action Italian version that came out this year. Surprise at its existence aside, I really enjoyed this version of the classic story.  This version leaned heavily into the episodic nature of the story to deliver numerous darkly twisted set pieces.

The film’s Oscar nominated categories are costuming and makeup, and they are more than deserving. Pinocchio’s wooden face is wonderfully done, and as the film becomes more and more fantastical, the animal faces are all wonderfully done. If I had any complaints about these aspects of the film, it’s that the colors are so muted in the film, that it’s difficult to fully appreciate it’s majesty. Still the film stands out as a hidden gem from this year’s Oscar films.

A 2021 Film Journey: Day 88

On By LaurenDolceVitaIn Movie ReviewsLeave a comment

Another day, and while I didn’t need to go to the ER today, my back feels just as bad. So while I was in bed for most of the day, pain killers kept my movie viewing to a minimum. In between hydrocodone naps, I managed to sneak in another Oscar nominated film. Looking at timing moving forward, I believe I should be able to finish my Oscar viewing by the time SIFF starts late next week, so look forward to that in the upcoming days.

Love and Monsters (2020, Dir. Michael Matthews)

Love and Monsters (2020) - IMDb

I’m just going to get this out of the up front, Love and Monsters is almost exactly Zombieland (2009, Dir. Ruben Fleischer). Dylan O’Brien play Joel the Jesse Eisenberg equivalent, a bit of a bumbling naïve protagonist. This archetype works perfectly for an apocalyptic comedy as it is primed for easy character growth and allows for a mentor figure to heavily influence the scope of the film. This gives the film a pulpy quality following a well-trodden formula.

The film’s Oscar nomination confuses me some as well. Zombieland was never in any serious consideration for an Oscar, but most of that I’m willing to chock up to Covid shrinking the pool. What really confuses me is that the visual effects themselves are somewhat lackluster. I thought the designs of the monsters themselves were noisy making it difficult to know what exactly was going on, and the CGI falls into the standard trappings of looking like CG. The actors never appear to share the screen with the monsters they are fighting. All of this adds up to a fine action comedy streaming offering, but not a film I’d peg for Oscar consideration.