if you want some Mubi recs, Red Road has been put on today which is brilliant
Also thought The Big Easy was great fun and A Man Escaped is really brilliant
I need to watch Barfly, Big Feast, Big Night, A Simple Life, His Girl Friday, Our Man In Havana, The Life of Jesus and Cinema Paradiso - no time~!
What sort of horror are you into?
I like things to be atmospheric, and ideally, supernatural. “Spooky” is better than “scary”.
I’m put off by most modern horror because it all seems to be about man’s inhumanity to man. Life’s grim enough without wallowing in some misanthrope’s torture porn fantasy.
The Eyes of My Mother is one of the ones I’m looking forward to. This was in a bunch of festivals early last year and I heard some pretty great things. I thought it would have been out already by now but there you go.
I’ve also head good stuff about Personal Shopper (ghosts!), Raw (cannibals!), and Get Out (social commentary!). Whereas Safe Neighbourhood (home invastion with a twist!) and Heretiks (nuns!) sound intriguing but I’m a bit more cautious in getting my hopes up.
Personal Shopper looks good. Really enjoyed The Clouds of Sils Maria.
You see that Linklater actually took the real Bernie in his custody for a while?
First film of the year last night was Hedi Schneider Steckt Fest (is stuck)
Absolutely beautiful film about a woman in her 30s, with a husband and kid, who seemingly out of nowhere suffers a major panic attach which ensues a particularly bad depressive episode. Starts off as quite a fun, light film for effect for when the bad thoughts start, but it deals with depression (especially as sudden as represented here) really well and it’s effects both on the person but also the life surrounding them (i.e family, friends, work colleagues).
Subverts expectations pleasingly several times, and handles some pretty weighty issues expertly, while retaining some sense of humour even if the film changes along with Hedi’s depression. Beautifully acted and looks pretty good too for what is a small personal drama, highly recommended:
Hamburger Hill - Not the best Vietnam conflict film I’ve ever seen but fairly enjoyable if a bit forgettable except maybe the head explosion bit 6/10
Saw Personal Shopper at the London Film Festival. It’s very odd and not in a good way.
Kristen Stewart is fine in it, but the story makes no sense even on its own terms.
I was really keen to see how they would tie the dead twin connection / ghost stuff with the whole aimless / unfulfilling job of being this stylist / personal shopper for some rich person in Paris…
Oh I didn’t notice Kristen Stewart’s in it! Thanks for the input, but I’m even keener to see it now.
nah i’d say most of the best musicals have really good songs
Only got round to watching Carol recently, but loved it.
cheery bye! 
Sing Street - Shit street. Films like this remind me just how much we should appreciate it when someone gets one of these coming of age type things right. Also has the most credited studios before the title (do these have a name?) of any film I can remember seeing. Felt like there were about 15.
A Monster Calls - Really liked it, think the Orphanage/Pan’s Labyrinth are going to be the most-referenced touchstones but it reminded me more of Super 8 or Where The Wild Things Are. The watercolour scenes are absolutely magnificent.
Yeah, I was thinking of WTWTA a lot during it as well, one of those films that are about childhood as opposed to being for children.
It’s a bit of a shame it seems to be being pitched at adults. When people were saying Spike Jonze had made WTWTA too dark Maurice Sendak responded by saying that he’d understood what the book was about and that children would too, and I think the same is true of this.
I am very interested in seeing
A monster calls
Silence
Rogue one
Manchester by the sea
La La land
January is good for films hey? HOWEVER, most of these were out a while ago in the States hey? Bollox IMHO
(Aware Star Wars has been out for ages)
You should add Moonlight to that list yo
