I want to be dead honest: school is getting in the way of my actual goals. One week of pure academic hell is enough for me to say that it would probably ruin my film streak. Anyway, it doesn't really affect that much. It's tiring, that's all. But dealing with school and my dreams is kinda hard, especially when I've just recently (early 2014) discovered my penchant for films and Wes Anderson. (More on that, later [hopefully].)
I'm trying my best to not talk about myself around here as much as I did before, so here are some insights I so carefully produced for these gems: (quite hurried, because I'm using the library internet, and people are starting to take notice of the clattering keys in the keyboard and I. Find. It. Unsettling.)
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) dir. Stanley Kubrick
Not really what I was expecting from Kubrick, but definitely left a mark in me and changed the way I viewed film. It appealed to me so much that I would much rather spend my life in celibacy. The harrowing flights this movie took set me at an alarmed state, with the story taking turns at such unexpected times. Essentially constructive and evocative, the film shows the audience their roles as mere viewers of the film, and that is the participation they are bound to execute themselves, either espoused or celibate.
Gravity (2013) dir. Alfonso Cuarón
As an avid enthusiast of space and time, it begets me to not appreciate the entirety of this film. The first act is begging for a little amount of ferocity, as this was the starting point of the characters' impending fate, but the character development truly speaks for itself. It was slow but cultivated, immaculately paying homage to the lethargic vibe space offers. The script, quite monotonous in the beginning, does its own job at making a stand for itself, as the actors unconsciously arouse the words to activity and put them at work.
Kill bill Vol. I (2003) and Kill Bill Vol. II (2004) dir. Quentin Tarantino
The obsessions we all share--bloodshed, revenge, and wordplay--are all present here. The epic, a two-part revenge movie, pays its own debt: reflecting on the vengeance that set The Bride ablaze. The director may be known for his own genius, but the characters built their own empires as the newly polished product of Tarantino's scape of imagination. Although the English subtitles may come off as an air of awkwardness whenever the characters speak in Japanese, it must be known that this must be the director's way of exercising his style, and the audience will never know, for they have created a mental image of what a Tarantino film looks like. This may be not be as great as his past and future productions, but Tarantino, in this film, relentlessly made a cordial invite in his off-putting world.
This doesn't struck me half as much as the films I've seen from this era. But this would be an assumption too premature for me to formulate because this is the first Antonioni feature I've seen. Although possessing a well curated script, with the usually smart banter between the characters, some scenes are unfocused. The casual rendezvous between the main protagonists were gently portrayed, but lacking in the chemistry and alert mindfulness; it was bland, but sometimes engaging, with the help of the wordplay that pranced between wit and casual cruelty.
Lust, Caution (2007) dir. Ang Lee
Unexpectedly engaging, Ang Lee once again proved himself to be the master of culture and cinematic thrill. The movie shined with a small sizzle at the beginning, and ended with still sparkling remnants of the hallmarks it established as it climaxed its way to the conclusion. The ill-fated characters, all doomed to live in leisure but eventually fall miserably to the hands of the enemy, authenticated their own integrity as the plot thickened its way to a perfect texture. The rigorous portrayal of eroticism was harsh, yet blatant in all its forms. The juxtaposition that took place within these scenes were slightly unsettling, as it really gets to you and the way you were expecting to see it as an expectant activist.
Mean Streets (1973) dir. Martin Scorsese
Italian drollery is one of Scorsese's trademark as a filmmaker, and this film would serve as the pioneer of the wisecracked humor firmly built upon his films. This must be the most challenging De Niro film I have seen, as he plays the character of a lost, confused man. He is gracefully aged, judging from his looks, but ideal- and culture-wise, he isn't. He's downright impulsive and plays on the loser tag, but is still a deadpan I-am-a-hero hero throughout the whole movie. He didn't prove anything by the end, but it's impressive to know that he admittedly confessed his own faults as a modern madman. Scorsese, a small man of style and equitable talent, showed his trues form as a filmmaker in this feature, as it exhibits the misfortunes the plot befell, the complexities it took the characters to finally realize they are at violent seas.
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