Movies Watched -- In Bloom

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Who knew Georgia (not the one in Dixie) was this screwed up? About two teenage girls growing up, sort of ... friendship, loyalty, dysfunctional families ... lots of drunkenness and violence and desperation ... not a feel-good pic ... I watched it to the end, no fast-forwarding, so it gets a yellow rating. Can't recommend it because it's too bleak ... all the post-Soviet movies are like this, places just look godawful (though the girls are beautiful ... a documentary I did like and can recommend is "Girl Model"). Georgian language sounds like Arabic? Central Asian people, they appear to be an interesting mix.

One on left soon to be child bride.

2014 Movies Watched -- Master List

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Movies Watched -- Ida

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Breaking rule of never watching anything remotely related to the Holocaust ... in this case the Nazi occupation of Poland ... anyway, orphaned girl discovers just before taking her vows (chastity, poverty, obedience ... grew up in a convent, you see) that her parents were Jewish ... it's an identity crisis movie ... just over 80 minutes long and I did watch to the end, but can't recommend it -- dark stuff. Yellow rating. 

Movies Watched -- Omar

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Pleased to announce I've found a fourth movie I can recommend from 2014: Omar. A story of love and betrayal from the West Bank. Sympathetic to the Palestinians' plight which means it won't get widely covered in the mainstream media in the US, but it was good. No idea why they try to pitch it as a thriller, it's not a thriller, it's just drama. Boy meets girl. Boy does awesome parkour throughout the West Bank fleeing burly Israeli security forces. Those isolation walls present a true parkour challenge. Distrust, shifting allegiances, and Marlon Brando Monkeyface is no friend in the end. 96 minutes long so falls within my sacred 100 minute limit. Green rating.

See it if you get the chance!  The other three I can recommend from that year are: The Lunchbox, Nightcrawler, and Under the Skin. 

Movies Watched -- A Summer's Tale

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Was on Rotten Tomatoes 2014 top list so I watched it ... very French ... lots of talk, no action. There's a tall skinny kid who has a giant head of lustrous black hair summering down on the French Riviera, strumming his guitar, going for swims, being lonely. Three separate beautiful girls throw themselves at him, but non, he's très bored, hates himself or something, doesn't end up banging any of them. Actually one of them was his girlfriend I guess, but she was a real bitch, he should have dropped her like a hot pomme de terre. I did watch to the end which is a yellow rating, but definitely not recommended. 

Valeant Pharmaceuticals for Elliott Wave Aficionados

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Click the chart to enlarge it and study hard ... would love to chat with a trader who played VRX using this weekly Elliott Wave -- getting long in August 2014 and exiting in August 2015 ... everybody sees the same thing at the same time (assuming they're watching), but acting on it is what sets people apart. 

Click to enlarge

Movies Watched -- The Guest

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Rotten Tomatoes used to aggregate the movie reviews from newspaper critics and compile a valuable ranking of the Top 100 movies for every year. Now they include the reviews of all kinds of amateur critics (i.e., idiot bloggers) and the usefulness of the list is diminished. "The Guest" appears 90% Fresh, which means it comes on my radar and I watch it only to learn that it's a really dumb movie. It's not badly made, it just makes no sense. 

I'm still working my way through the Top Movies of 2014 and only have three that I liked / can recommend: The Lunchbox, Nightcrawler, and Under the Skin.  May be tough to come up with a Top Ten list for this year, but I'll keep plugging away (for the benefit of you dozen loyal readers).

Ralph Fiennes bastard brother