have at it
back up to 16 films last month which is more like it. Slightly disappointed by Man Who Wasn’t There, Coco was better than ever on a rewatch, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert was great fun and hadn’t even aged that badly. In the last few days …
Men: woooft what garbage. Really did find the beginning pretty engaging, even if it was never subtle it still had some beautiful images, good atmosphere, very much enjoyed Jeffrey as a character, the tunnel singing scene was great. Started going off it with all the different Rory Kinnear’s (the child one was plain silly, and the trick was so boring in Anomalisa and it was boring here). And the less said about the whole ending section the better, just the worst combo of laughable but not funny. A crap Midsommar, which is somehow both more obvious and makes less sense
Paris, Texas: really nice when you watch something you’ve always heard is a masterpiece, and it basically manages to live up to that. Looked and sounded incredible, can really see how this influenced the Coen Bros and guitar needs to be used in film scores more often. Loved how everything was shot with the same sense of scale and power, whether it was rolling mountains and plains or a dusty old petrol station. Funnier than I was expecting and some actually decent child acting
the ending had some amazing stuff in there, both with shots and lines, but did leave me feeling a little unsure. On the one hand its a redemption arc, broken lost man tries to mend mistakes by bringing people together, but also abusive husband tracks down young vulnerable wife years later in a situation where she’s basically forced to listen to him. If the film always knew this was the duality of the scene then that’s fine, just always uncertain with older films whether the guy is given a little too much slack or treated more heroically than necessary given his history.
Great overall anyway, worked for me a lot more than I was expecting and really was just a feast for the senses
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Watched Mother Joan of the Angels. The Devils was better
43 films seen in July.
Best: The Sea Beast
Worst: Either Incantation (although I kept dozing off, which made following it difficult) or The St Louis Bank Robbery (a cheap as chips and badly dated heist movie, notable only for an early appearance by Steve McQueen)
Very irritated by The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, which tries to be wacky and loveable but can’t ultimately disguise that it is about crushing familial mental illness.
Really enjoyed the first concert performance in Elvis, with Austin Butler sending the crowd wild with ever faster hip thrusts. The rest of the film is not good, exemplified in a scene in the family house when everyone starts to lose control of their accents and end up talking Australian.
Very taken with the young(ish) Barbara Stanwyck in Blowing Wild and The Furies. A real force of nature that blows the male stars of those movies clean away.
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sad month there Ant 
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Yeah, I watched not many films and they were mostly quite bad.
Dizzy heights of 11 in July, which was an improvement on June’s 3. Put some good films out in the cinema again, please.
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Too much sport on to watch many films:
The Black Telephone - not bad
Cha Cha Real Smooth - fine
Dirty Dancing - really liked it. Much better than Road House
The Sea Beast - Spectacular animation, lovely story, fun characters. Gorgeous.
Wasn’t keen on a couple of the performances but they grew on me and overall it’s just such a quality film it didn’t affect my enjoyment of it. Would recommend it to pretty much anyone.
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Might go to Hit the Road this evening if I cba
I watched Venom (2018) last night for some reason.
And you know what? I really enjoyed it.
Just a very stupid film from start to finish. Liked how un-serious it was compared to the bore fest of recent marvel films. The decision to have Tom Hardy speak like Charlie Day throughout was a strange one, but I applaud the ambition. Baffling to see actual good actors in this too - Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed want to be firing their agents over this.
Probably going to watch the second one now.
correct score for Burn After Reading
A rewatch of course but I love it so, so much
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Swingers
First time I’ve seen this in years - still great and very funny anyway, Vince Vaughn wouldn’t be anything like this good again until Hacksaw Ridge or something. That voicemail scene is still 1000% excruciating though.
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Waves (2019)
Tbh I’m a sucker for anything A24 put out but I did really enjoy this and the trailer didn’t give away any of the main plot spoilers so was pretty gripped by the story. Great acting performances from all the main cast, some absolutely heart breaking stuff, some absolutely lovely stuff too and a soundtrack consisting of a Kanye, Kendrick, ASAP Rocky, Fuck Buttons and an awful lot of Frank Ocean which really, really compliments the film well imo. Some great cinematography and a really odd choice to switch aspect ratio for about 10mins right in the middle of the film and I don’t really know what that was about. (not a plot spoiler or anything)
Would recommend for anyone who enjoyed things like Moonlight and The Place Beyond the Pines.
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Glad to see some other regulars are in a big film lull atm.
I likened it to existing in the same world as Euphoria. Has both style and substance.
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Still never seen Euphoria although I’ve heard good things
Alive is an absolute snoozefest