Rifkin's Festival (Woody Allen, 2020): 1/5

I somewhat admire the dedication to churning out shit.

Tori and Lokita (The Dardennes, 2022): 3/5

Engrossing, though I didn't care for the rushed ending. Felt too blunt, telegraphed and didn’t land as I would’ve hoped. Still, I was drawn in by the phenomenal performances and chemistry from Pablo Schils and Mbundu Joely.

Even Dwarfs Started Small (Werner Herzog, 1970): 2/5

I decided to haul out my copy of HERZOG ON HERZOG before writing this, and in it he says something like: "nightmares and dreams do not bend to political correctness". This is probably the purest nightmare fuel Herzog ever made (though let me rewatch LESSONS OF DARKNESS before signing that in blood), the work of an angry young man unfussed with societal norms, animal welfare, or anything except the endless circling of an abandoned motor car and maniacal cackling of dwarfs. Nowhere near my favorite Herzog, and difficult to recommend, it's a crazy film that slots somewhere between Jodorowsky and THE IDIOTS. (The story, such as it is, is basically an institution-bound LORD OF THE FLIES.)

Bad Tales (Damiano D’Innocenzo, Fabio D’Innocenzo, 2020): 2/5

Technically accomplished and great textures of dread and ambiguity, but that's kind of it. The characters didn't feel like human beings so much as repositories for human suffering. And despite the set up being quite simple, the narrative was weirdly hard to follow - didn't feel intentional either.

Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, 2022): 3.5/5

Freddie, a 25 year old South Korean born woman who was adopted and grew up in France, returns to her birth country on a whim and starts looking for her biological parents, and in the process experiences a crisis over her own identity. It is a character-driven drama that really shines in its first half and Park Ji-min is absolutely a star in the making. Saddest part is when the dad’s wife uses her Nintendo 3DS to say how happy she is that Freddie is there.

Betty Tells Her Story (Liane Brandon, 1972, 19 mins): 3.5/5

“The uncomfortableness of being praised for a prettiness I never had.”

A simple, ingenious conceit, of having a woman tell the same story of a small but affecting indignity and heartbreak twice, using unassuming close-ups to study her face to see how the second time and the benefit of having reflected on the story brings new emotional details to the same narrative event. What a difference between telling a story and reliving a feeling.

Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshio Matsumoto, 1969): 2.5/5

No matter how progressive or reformist, for glaring abstraction to truly take hold, it must prompt a strong visceral reaction from me, something that this film never really did. Instead, I was often reduced to admiring it from afar—appreciating its singularity but remaining mostly impassive to anything it was trying to say. The contour is fascinating, but the themes of coming to terms with one’s sexuality are obfuscated under the tidal wave of experimentalism, almost in a way that makes the transgender and homosexual elements seem like merely other parts of the collective novelty. Matsumoto occasionally does strike a tender nerve of compassion, mainly in the way his cross-dressing subjects confront the pseudo-documentarians (who ask and prod their questions with an undeniably conservative bent) with breezy insouciance.

Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, 2022): 1/5

*Carmela Soprano voice*

"There was the cinematography."

Satisfies the most rudimentary element of any feature film in that it is most certainly a series of images, though I would be hard-pressed to argue it does much more to justify its existence beyond that. Would not make an iota of difference if you walk in at minute zero or minute eighty, except the latter spares you eighty minutes of your time. Does not provoke, does not scare, does not thrill, does not intrigue.

Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley, 2022): 3/5

A microcosm of endorsed "think of the children" homophobia in 1980s Thatcherite Britain. Nicely shot character study about surpassing the fear of owning one's identity for positive change.

The Plains (David Easteal, 2022): 2.5/5

Exclusively mundane and rarely interested in more than cumulative effect. Basically, JEANNE DIELMAN in a car.

Un Flic (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972): 3/5

A typical Jean-Pierre Melville crime film, which means it's slick, cool, and stylish, and features stoic men being damn professionals. The problem is that films like LE SAMOURAI, LE CERCLE ROUGE, and LE DOULOS are even slicker, cooler, and more stylish, which is why UN FLIC is a bit underwhelming in comparison. The meticulously crafted heist sequences are the clear highlights, but everything else is not quite as gripping and a bit unfocused. Nevertheless, if you are in need of a dose of French coolness, a Melville flick is never the wrong choice.

Young Torless (Volker Schlondorff, 1966): 2.5/5

Who would have thought that privileged teenage boys in an institution that encourages power and manipulation over empathy would commit violence against others given the opportunity?

The Sleeping Beauty (Catherine Breillat, 2010): 1/5

"To be beautiful one must suffer," Anastasia says. I must be gorgeous then, given how much I hated this movie from start to finish. I’m not convinced that this wasn’t directed by a different Catherine Breillat and criterion added it by mistake.

Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat, 2009): 2/5

Better than SLEEPING BEAUTY but still quite unimpressive. Breillat tries to convince the audience that the subdued and one-note directing and cinematography are a way to strip away any form of elegance from the fairy tale genre, but it just looks like a made for TV movie. I guess some people enjoy such subtext filled boringness unfold on screen, but there is very little here to actually unpack.

Hellbender (Toby Poser, John Adams, 2021): 3/5

Exactly what you'd want from a movie about witches: lots of creepy witchy shit. Becomes more impressive/neat when you factor in the familial nature of the production.

65 (Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, 2023): 2/5

Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs in space. I heard they tested two cuts, what I saw can't be the best version.

Beef (Hikari, 2023): 4/5

OR, Meat Cute.

Starts with a cautionary tale about road rage/anger management that quickly begins to spiral out into some dark and perilous places. Wong and Yuen are both marvelous as the two pro/antagonists, each of their POVs presented with as much empathy as can be afforded, while never letting either of them off the hook for the horrible things they do along the way. Fun and entertaining - a very good binge.

Abbott Elementary Season 1 (Quinta Brunson, 2021): 3.5/5

Sweet, charming, and funny. Janelle James is pitch perfect as the tone-deaf principal.

Center Stage (Stanley Kwan, 1991): 3/5

I miss Maggie Cheung so much I could cry real tears. I hope she's happy, wherever she is.

The Bigamist (Ida Lupino, 1953): 3/5

Prefigures Mad Men in a lot of ways - the ennui-filled businessman torn between various women who can't fulfill him. Always consuming, never sated, doomed from the start and trudging along any way he can. Neat to see this perspective arise from the period itself and not retrospectively.

Hospital (Frederick Wiseman, 1970): 4/5

A simultaneous testament to Wiseman's observational skills and his perspicacity as an editor, shaping shapeless anecdotes into something that proceeds with undeniable subterranean logic while completely devoid of conventional audience hand holding.

I am of two minds as to whether this early Wiseman suffers slightly or not from the absence of what becomes trademark in late Wiseman - spending time in the bowels of institutional decision making. I would be curious as to how this would play with scenes of administrators arguing budgets and bed numbers or whatever, but its undiluted focus on the intersection between the front line, the public, and the other institutions that interact with the hospital (police, other hospitals, and social services) doesn't beg for additional material.

High School (Frederick Wiseman, 1968): 4/5

Wiseman looks at high school as a dystopian engine for capitalist conformity. Not sure why anyone even bothered making a high school movie after this, he said everything there is to say.

Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan, 1989): 2/5

Egoyan at his iciest and most alienating - with little to no cues for any sort of conventional emotional identification. Main plot and subplots are off putting and weird. The more Egoyan films I see, the more I'm convinced that Yorgos Lanthimos must be a big fan.

The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977): 3.5/5

I was in the mood for some depressing Soviet cinema and THE ASCENT certainly ticks all the boxes. A bleak frozen landscape frames a harrowing and philosophical anti-war story that slowly builds to an emotive grim finale. What's not to love? And it wasn't til afterward that I realized Shepitko was married to the director of Come and See, Elem Klimov. I kind of love it when great filmmakers are married to each other (e.g. Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy).