Kyua (Cure)

Not bad until the end, when it got all incomprehensible.  There must be a mandate in Japan’s film industry that your movie can’t make sense.  I don’t mind things being ambiguous, but I’m sensing a trend here.  Rating: 7

IMDb

Repulsion

I ought to have liked this more.  It’s stylistic, it’s creepy, and it’s got to be a major influence on Eraserhead.  But I didn’t really get into it that much.  I can’t put my finger on it.  I shouldn’t write these things when I’m tired, I guess.  Rating: 7

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Million Dollar Baby

This felt like two different predictable movies, bridged by one unpredictable event.  First you’ve got a pretty standard boxing movie, clichés all in place.  Then “that thing” happens and you’ve got a rather mundane melodrama.  I probably would have liked it more if they’d just stuck to the standard boxing movie, and maybe saved the “thing” for the end.  It was well done though, and the interplay between Eastwood and Freeman is almost as enjoyable as it was in Unforgiven.  Could have done without Freeman’s narration which (as one critic pointed out) made it feel like a rehash of Shawshank Redemption.  Rating: 7

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Closer

It’s mere coincidence that I watched this so soon after watching Faithless, with which it shares a major story point.  My gut reaction was “rip-off!” but maybe not.  The scenario in question is an uncommon one, but not so bizarre that two people wouldn’t think of it independently of each other.  That’s neither here nor there, just an odd moment for me as the viewer experiencing a moment of déjà vu.  Closer is about as good as you would expect from the director and the cast.  It’s good, but not great.  Has a fairly clever structure.  But does the world really need more stories about infidelity?  I didn’t feel like I was getting anything new, and it didn’t connect with me, didn’t seem very real.  

Here I am agonizing over what rating to give it.  6 or 7, 6 or 7?  I am such a nerd.  Rating: 7

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Shame (rewatch)

There’s a lot of great anti-war films, but I’ve not seen one as effective or excellent as Shame.  Its multi-faceted brutality exposes the horror of two simultaneous wars: the martial and the marital (ooh, I’m clever!).  This is, I think, the bleakest film from the master of bleak.  Rating: 10 

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The Seventh Seal (rewatch)

“Rich tapestry” might be a cliché of sorts, but it’s exactly how I would describe Seventh Seal.  It has so much to offer, covers a lot of ground in a short time, and does it with fascinating images and horror and humor and warmth and dread.  Not my favorite Bergman, but no less than a masterpiece.  Rating: 10

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El Topo

My first Jodorowsky.  A heap of Buñuel with a serving of Leone.  Not “my” kind of surrealism (a bit too allegorical and obvious) and dull in parts, but definitely unusual enough to sit through.  Looking forward to Holy Mountain — what I saw of it seemed more my style.  Rating: 7 

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The Gleaners and I

I like the concept, but I think the autobiographical parts are superfluous.  I’d rather see more of the real gleaners.  Varda’s assertion that she’s also a gleaner (“gleaning” images) is not convincing as a connection to the subject matter.  But it’s done unintrusive way, so no big deal.  I  have mixed feelings about the digital video, and I hope this doesn’t become the hot new thing in independent film.  Rating: 7

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The Milky Way

You’ve got to be really into religion to enjoy this.  They talk about it endlessly, and bicker over it, and fight over it.  I am not into religion, so it was a real struggle to get through it.  On a technical level, it was purely mediocre.  There are moments of humor, but not many, and they’re not all that amusing.  The structure is much like Phantom of Liberty, a series of loosely interconnected stories.  But it was tedious and plodding.  The Buñuel surrealism that I like so much was barely there.  There’s just not much here for me.  Perhaps I’m simply not educated enough in religion to get it.  Rating: 4  

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Simon of the Desert

A hilarious and effective work of religious satire.  Also a pleasure to look at, it’s loaded with fabulous imagery.  One wonders what Buñuel would have done with it if he’d had the money to film the whole thing, but it works perfectly well as a short.  Rating: 8

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