In Japanese. 180 minute running time, that’s right, THREE HOURS LONG … this was boring and tedious, I hated it and call bullshit. No idea why it’s gotten so much critical acclaim and a Criterion release … must be the Haruki Murakami short story connection. John Farr LOVED it, which is such a disappointment. Full red, avoid!
Before she inexplicably dropped dead
In Persian. 100 minute running time so the perfect length. I really enjoyed this one … it’s a documentary of sorts but with several re-enacted sections, though it makes you wonder what’s documentary footage and what’s re-enacted … grabs you from the get-go and holds your interest the entire time … you get some real insight into Iranian society and culture … this is a green-go, recommended movie. John Farr also liked it.
Pain and suffering
117 minute running time so 20 minutes too long … Bette Davis was sort of homely, I don’t know why she was such a big Hollywood star … Warner Brothers studio pic … Gladys Cooper plays a good mother from hell but I wasn’t super interested in this … a love story from a repressed era, didn’t click with me 80 years later.
Heavy smoker
Big fan of Alice Phoebe Lou and Ziv Yamin … “honey thighs” is their best song as strongboi:
I love Gaidaa .. here she is Falling Higher:
112 minute running time so 10 to 20 minutes too long … my buddy Dave recommended this one, telling me “you’ll hate it,” but I wouldn’t say I hated it, I just didn’t like it and wouldn’t recommend it. It’s too weird and too depressing and I didn’t get its deep message, assuming there was one … sad-sack Paul Giamatti, who specializes in playing losers, the bald, the glasses, the straggly beard … but he’s a good actor … the girl is Michelle Williams, whom I didn’t immediately recognize because she’s chubbier here, she’s talented too, I really liked her in Shame … but as I said, I didn’t really get it and don’t want even to think about it. As James Greenberg said, “Loaded with obtuse symbolism, the film is not only hard to understand, it isn't much fun trying to figure it out.”
Menage a trois?
237 minute running time, that’s right, THREE HOURS AND 57 MINUTES, so it’s a real slog … 1960s Taiwan, I guess there were a lot of street gangs and juvenile delinquency and this kid from a respectable family falls into it … even for someone who has an interest in Chinese history like me, most of this movie was hard to sit through, just sort of boring until the shocking end. No idea why Criterion thinks it’s a “singular masterpiece.” This was a John Farr reco.
Don’t worry about me, Dad
82 minute running time, so a good length. Somehow I ran across Christopher Radcliffe in my online travels and learned that he’s half-Chinese, which interested me. Maybe he was a screenwriter of something else I recently watched… anyway this movie was both written and directed by him and a Columbia grad named Lauren Wolkstein … this was a low budget movie with amateur actors and the story was extremely depressing …
SPOILERS: apparently this teenage kid was being molested by both his father and his neighbor so the kid killed his father and burned down the house and ran off with the neighbor. The neighbor was this young beefcake guy, so it didn’t really work for me. A horror movie really. Not recommended and certainly not a John Farr reco.
You’re going to feel some pressure now
155 minute running time, that’s right TWO HOURS AND 35 MINUTES … not really a documentary about Sherman’s March but about the filmmaker’s screwed-up love life instead … towards the end of the film he says that everything in the south felt “crazy and off kilter,” and I thought that was putting it mildly. All the women in his life, from his sister to the many women he pursued, were all lunatics, just stark-raving mad. McElwee is a smart guy and parts of the movie are hilarious, but the overall vibe is sort of weird and depressing. Lots of examples of terrible 80’s eyeglasses and haircuts, for historical reference. This was a John Farr reco: “… an inspired meditation on life, love and relationships.”
Nightmares of the apocalypse
