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morloq
Reviews
Weed (1972)
MUST WATCH
As an undeniable boomer, IMO this is a must see for all ages.
Post-boomers will FINALLY get a clue from this incredible deep dive what the best & breadth of counter-culture had to offer at its height.
The Cambodia & Nepal footage is invaluable time capsule where no one else dared venture then on even this limited scale. The 'Nam footage is heavyweight by any measure. That far afield there then is unparalleled by any independent, let alone bootstrap, film production I have ever witnessed.
100% of the budget is on the screen direct from location, and is earnest in raw style that is almost unobtainable in currently released documentary films, regardless of intent to do likewise.
There may be bodycam & helmet GoPro footage slice of life shorts on YouTube & its counterparts that compare, but something about the urgency to maximize content volume on a single, then expensive roll of filmstock makes these single take uncut candid scenes pop with the passion of onscreen presenter, camera jockey & sound sideman as jazz trio improvisation, regardless of lengthy shot duration.
Whining negative reviews with MTV predicated hypercut expectations are way off base.
That I currently have to buy a copy of this film released in DVD sandwich with grindcore cousins is a big drag.
El hombre de las mil caras (2016)
Another vote for FANTASTIC FILM so why cripple the FAQ
When there are so many questions left unanswered by the tightly paced script ?
I don't understand why IMDB seems to have throttled the FAQ section in its crib on films listings when that used to be one of the most vibrant sections of user commentary.
I would have more appropriately posted this inquiry there but that access is grayed out as unavailable.
Specifically, is Paco's (Paesa) painting an actual painting with known title & artist ?
From what very little I know about art, I would peg it as a Modigliani, but I know there are others who have worked in that broader, flat style of simplified portraiture.
Did the historical figure indeed drag around such a painting as his one sole lasting possession ?
If so, did it in fact hang in a place of honor on the wall of the Thermonuclear Disarmament ambassador's residence of his (semi) steady lady friend ?
And that's not even touching the many questions about the facts, whether of the plot or the actual history from which the film was derived, regarding the financial misdealing portrayed. Wonder what that lawyer niece is up to now.
GREAT FILM for anybody who likes to exercise their brain.
Maen Too Maen (2017)
baffled by the absence in reviews
The benchmark for Korean & Chinese top rank film & TV seems unjustifiably skewed higher in nearly all reviews by those outside the culture. Characters & actors & scripts are nitpicked to a degree that U.S. productions aren't, and ignorant cultural biases are applied to character motivation that demonstrate total lack of awareness of difference in cultural mores. The very high level of self-parody done well that is lauded to the hilt in western efforts like the TV series Chuck is derided unappreciatively as shallow simpering, career trademark of Jim Carrey. Most of all, the production quality, in particular the substantially superior picture resolution & camera work, gets no mention. Again & again, I've been left agape at the beauty of just the picture or scene setting or camera staging in Chinese & Korean production that is so evidently a quantum level above even the best of what I see come out of Hollywood. Much of that seems to utilize the 16:9 aspect ratio with a panoramic sensibility missing altogether in western cinema weaned on the 4:3 TV screen so cripplingly dependent on the close-up of faces. Although I have only watched the first episode so far, I hesitate to binge watch this excellent series because just the one episode was so full of skilled nuance both visually & dramatically. K-drama is often derided as overly melodramatic, and I suspect the many lesser productions I never saw that constitute by far the bulk of the genre are such. But that has made the best of it, such as this show, all the more poignant as a result of its makers being well practiced in conveying passion on the screen.