115 minute running time so at least 15 minutes too long, and probably closer to 25 minutes too long. I watched 40 minutes then quit. It's a mish mash of things: comedy, crime drama, romance, but none of it works. Maybe it's too black or too young for me to get, but it didn't work for me. Similar to Dear White People in that way. There are some funny bits, but then combining them with the real horror and violence of living in the 'hood just doesn't fly. Red rating, avoid.
Asking Zoë Kravitz to the prom.
Taking a massive loss in the Emerging Markets ... getting badly whipsawed after changes made following "Brexit" ... look at the inverse VIX since last Monday, yeah, people are getting destroyed out there. We'll see how bad the losses in the Q's and the Euro are when I finally take them.
100 minute running time, so just the right length. Starred the kid who starred in Starred Up (my favorite movie from 2014), except in this movie he didn't have much dialogue, he just cowers and grimaces (see screenshot below). Story is about a British soldier who gets left behind on the mean streets of Belfast (in 1971) after a house raid goes awry. Non-stop action, tension, a kind of nightmare dreamscape ... the movie was structured well, but for some reason I couldn't get into it even though I couldn't take my eyes away from it. I certainly didn't fast forward, so it gets a yellow rating. You have to turn on the subtitles for this one, as you did with Starred Up.
Maybe it's because the idea of a Catholic/Protestant divide leading to terrible violence just strikes me as absurd, and the double-dealing of the British army is kind of awful, but not unexpected ("this is war"). It's early days, but I still haven't found a movie from 2015 that I can recommend. (EDIT: Mad Max: Fury Road is one I definitely recommend.)
Cowering, again
109 minute running time so at least 10 to 20 minutes too long. Weird one. It's a combination comedy / horror / romance movie. Structure of it is bizarre, not well laid out. Noted blogger Jason Kottke gets in a bar fight and runs away to Italy to avoid the police, using the inheritance from his recently deceased mother. There he meets an exotic girl who is not all she seems. True love conquers all.
I assume it's a W.D. By movie, some smarty-pants trust fund kids behind it, maybe. Didn't fast forward so it gets a yellow rating. Also gets points for being filmed in a lovely Italian town on the Adriatic Sea. But I can't recommend this.
Blogger Kottke with his multilingual Medusa
