I'll definitely check out Shoplifters. I haven't seen a Kore-eda movie in a long time, so I'll start with that, and work back. Looking at his filmography, probably all to I Wish. His stuff is worth checking out, he's very much a minimalist and thoughtful filmmaker. Hopefully Shoplifter is no different. Still Walking is my favourite but I'd really need to get another look at them all, thankfully I own a few of his 2000s movies.
I think Shoplifters was actually the first film I saw of his, although I've had "Like Father, Like Son" on my Watchlist for a long while now, probably since that movie was released I guess.
But yeah, Shoplifters was such a nice surprise that I'm definitely interested in checking out his other stuff now!
Just saw The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
For some reason I'm not at all interested in that film... maybe because it's an anthology? Or maybe I'm just used to a ton of fanfare when a new Coens movie is out but this time around I feel like it was very minimal... maybe because it's on Netflix, I think?
But hey, speaking of westerns, yesterday I saw-
The Sisters Brothers
It was alright. I think I liked it but it wasn't exactly mindblowing.
I said this one was at the bottom of my list because I deemed it the most "commercial and mainstream", and yeah, it was kinda like that, but this isn't a "blockbuster western", it's actually more sentimental-driven (though with plenty of shootouts, of course) and more something you'd expect to see scoring plenty of awards.
As a matter of fact, the director was there for a brief discussion/Q&A afterwards, and it was implied that they're very hopeful it gets some important nominations, probably for the Academy Awards if I were to guess.
I'm not really sure what it would be nominated for.
I had a good time, but I don't think I would've lost anything substantial by not seeing it, except maybe for Joaquin Phoenix. John C. Reilly is also a tremendous actor, but there's something about Phoenix, I don't know, it's always such a pleasure to see him act, I really think he's one of the best actors currently in the business.
Some two hours later, I finally got to see
Suspiria(!!!) in a sold out theater and boy...
Oh
boy...
Holy shit... like,
dayum.
I have to start right off by saying that I can't say whether it was good or bad, or whether I liked it or not,
at least not in a straightforward fashion.
Did I hate the movie? Absolutely
not, in fact I was so GLUED to what was happening on screen, that I barely even blinked and my eyes would get so dry and burny!
Was it worth the money/seeing it in theaters?
YES ABSOLUTELY. It is definitely an experience, and one such as this definitely deserves to be seen/heard/felt in the best of conditions.
But yeah, this is definitely NOT for everyone, especially with the film having a run time of 2h32mins. It's just not.
When I got out of the theater, I heard about 3-5 separate conversations going on while on my way out, and they all went like this:
- "yeah I was expecting something else"
- "that stuff towards the end kinda ruined it for me"
- "I have many mixed emotions"
- "this is a lot to process"
etc.
At the very beginning of the film, the way the first scenes were edited felt like a slap to the face.
It was distressing, and in my mind all I could think was "this feels very psychotic" (the editing), which I'm assuming was extremely intentional given the nature of the scenes in question.
With that in mind,
it makes sense and it's definitely a + when it comes to the concept and all, but holy shit was it a hardcore way to start the film.
Lots, lots of cuts and information to process, already demanding 110% of your attention.
Yes,
this film is extremely demanding. It doesn't have super long dialogues or things like that, but at times there are a lot of cuts, not to mention dialogues in English, German and French (although French was very minimal).
There's also a lot going on with different characters, the action jumps around a lot/somewhat, and I can definitely say that some subplots would lose the audience whenever we got back to them, and to be honest I had to go and look up what the significance of some plot threads were.
Speaking of "losing the audience". I'm not sure if everyone knows but I don't consider it exactly a spoiler, but the movie is separated into
6 Parts + an Epilogue, which they tell you right at the start of the film.
And throughout the film, "Part 1, 2, etc." + their respective titles come on screen.
If it were up to me, I wouldn't have done that. Maybe for the DVD/digital release, but not in theaters.
I get that it was a stylistical choice, and me, I wasn't bothered by it, but I could tell the "vibe" in the room whenever a title would come up.
For example, when Part 3 came on, I could "sense" some people sighing and shuffling in their chairs like "
so we're only halfway through?", or something like that.
I mean look, it was a sold out showing so obviously there were bound to be some people there that wouldn't enjoy the film. The guy next to me left at some point and I had to get up and shit, for example u_u...
But I think having those "title inserts" kinda takes you out of the experience. You should just let the movie run, and not give people indication whether you're 2/6ths through, or halfway through, or whatever, it kinda takes you out of the moment - in my opinion - because it immediately makes you think "
oh, so there's about X amount of time left", which in turn, both directly and indirectly, break immersion because you're thinking about it as a film, and in doing so takes you out of the story.
I didn't mind it, but I believe that not having those would've improved a portion of the reception overall... I think.
Another thing I've seen people mentioning, is that the tone wasn't exactly consistent all the way through, but I'd say the big offender(s) probably happen in the latter half.
Once again, as I said, there were hundreds of people in the room, so naturally some would find X terrifying, while others would laugh.
And the thing is,
while I didn't laugh at the parts where you weren't supposed to laugh, I understand why a lot of people did.
I think the director/team could've done a MUCH better job in those scenes to make sure that the tone sticks, so that it doesn't become "campy" and slapstick-y. Not sure if I'm using those terms right but I'm sure you'd understand upon seeing the film.
Maybe it was intentional? A tribute to the original (as well as the films of that epoch), which I haven't seen yet? I wouldn't know, still have a lot to read on it.
I mean hell, I haven't even watched the trailers yet, which I avoided like the plague!
Like, when I went to see Overlord last week, I had to close my eyes when they showed the Suspiria trailer D:
First time I "heard" the movie, too, and it sounded prety intriguing and nice to me.
There is one thing I can say for sure though.
Even though I would understand that some people say the film (or some scenes) are very pretentious, what really got to me was that
I could tell that this film had an absurd amount of LOVE and WORK put into it, and it oozed everywhere.
The actors - stunning, stunning Tilda Swinton as always! She's such an unique actress - the music, the editing...
Like, literally everything about the film.
It's a great cinematographic work. As a story? I'm not sure, but like I said I'm not familiar with the original and I know there a TON of stuff under the surface. There's more to it than appearances.
But yeah, you could totally make an "art book" with 1 frame from every single scene/cut, and I'm nearly certain that it would be almost like an encylopedia of paintings.
It was very pretty to look out, some of the compositions and whatnot, I mean really, and all of that adds up to why I think it should be seen in theaters.
Also the lead-up (as well as the actual) to the first fucked up scene was amazing. Amazing.
Once again, a ton of work by everyone involved.
As I'd seen some people commenting before, this isn't so much a "horror" movie in that it doesn't have jumpscares (I think?), instead it's more fucked up and weirder than anything else.
With that in mind, though, I still expected a few more scenes of the wtf-variety, but in the end I wasn't disappointed.
I think that's all I have to say for now, sorry for the wall of text D:
& Village of the Damned (1995) - 8 / 10 
) . Kun seems to have visitations from other family members from the future and the past. It's an adorable film so see it when you can.
