Change Your Image
MateoMijo
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Do lok tin si (1995)
Captivating Grimy Neon Fragmented Hong Kong Landscape
It is a transportive cinematic underworld universe which Wong Kar-wai establishes a recurring theme of embracing solitude.
Wong also has a lot of fun through being very nudge-nudge self referential of his own past works.
Technically it uses unsteady camera movement, extreme wide angle lenses, wide angle shots, establishing one of the most distinctive signature cinematic uses in distortion of images through editing and slowing down of fps. It illustrates unapologetic complex characters, whom evoke the emotionally dissociative power of life in the city's electric and equally eclectic landscape. There is a constant sense of distance-in-proximity and disjointed editing also, fully conveying the character's solitude, which the score also aims to help with this psychedelic feat.
The beatdown of the inflatable blondie was incontestable as well as the overarching yearning of longing. The picture conveys a profound sense of isolation also.
Consistently and unapologetically fragmented, as narratives are interwoven with one another. Painted very frantically but with irrefutable strokes of genius and with a super unique, distinctive perspective and direction. It has super distinctive cinematography along with the ____ score.
Premature (2019)
Hits home
I hadn't given it the actual time which it deserved, but when I finally got around to watch it, the romance I shared with a special someone, the realisation of a fractured love, years of romance leading to a break up which occurred to me previously to watching this, it all came rushing to me altogether and emotionally welded this movie to my own experience.
After having watched it and crying, it really gave me such an appreciation for it, for its scenes of intimacy, for its scenes of conflict , scenes of black family, scenes of black friends, but mostly the tender scenes of lovers just enjoying being being in each other's lives, company and sharing a loving space of love and joy. Additionally, also the pain that inevitably comes afterwards when you're forced to face an unstable relationship tumbling down.
Also has to be said that the score, the jazz infusions in this movie are incredibly stellar too, much deserved praise to the Clayton Brothers for their contribution to this.
The Harder They Fall (2021)
Guess who's black in the house
I find it very interesting how the overwhelming majority of the scrutiny that is being expressed regarding this film is related to it being 'overly politically correct', 'historically inaccurate', 'fake woke'. It seems as if the criticism that is being given in harsher reviews is not even being directed at the execution of the film, but rather of the white fragility/discomfort that is felt over watching an all black cast of incredible talent, showcased over a western genre of cinema.
It is a solid film, people are just mad that that western genre of cinema is being occupied by an all black cast of amazing talent.
I will never understand why people are obsessed with old white supremacy, get over putting white feelings over black talent and black lives.
Dune (2021)
Technically its a wonderful spectacle but the characters lack development
It has to be said that technically it does hits the beats which it needs to. I mean, the director of photography does a remarkable job at developing the film's authentic visual style as well as the visual iconography being super solid throughout the film.
Dune 2021 is so commendable for even the fact that its commitment to the source material and establishing of the world is established incredibly well. In a grandeur viewing cinematic experience, I can imagine that the film is even more of a highlight and an incredibly immersive moment altogether.
Hans Zimmer's contribution to this film goes without saying is one of its peak highlights, the score is incredibly immersive and enigmatic, it is truly impressionable and immersive from the beginning.
On the contrary to its strong points, I do think that the characters lack grandeur, development and personally I wasn't enthralled by any of them or felt attached to them emotionally in any way. Oscar Isaac gave a great performance, whilst Jason Momoa felt like an unnecessary addition to the cast, whereby there was zero uniqueness to his character and role in the film.
Altogether what it lacks in some latter departments, it makes up for technically in others as a strong suit. I also appreciate the social political subtexts of the narrative, when it explores themes of imperialism and opiums (similar to Star Wars), with these tyranny groups being obsessed with the idea of obtaining and taking over resources, ultimately leading to their demise.
Black Swan (2010)
I felt it
Psychological horror movie have reached this level of beautiful artistic obsession with attaining perfection and being an apex competitor in a field of dance. It has such a succinct crescendo and finale that it really carries audiences through the motions.
Arrival (2016)
does not quite 'arrive', it just lingers
As user, therskybznuiss stated on Arrival, 'the premise and the grand statements of this movie are overall better than the final result'. That sums up the takeaway from this movie.
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Where is your joy, where is your humanity?
The mall scene was really great, the dialogue was a bit uncomfortable personally it was just very cookie cutter or cheesy at times. In contrast, the second half of the film felt quite over the top, hammy, but not entirely lovingly hammy. The line itself 'where is your joy, where is your humanity' should have carried a lot more of an impact that it ended up delivering during the second act of the film.
There are humorous, cheeky subtle hints at the revelation and evolution of Cheetah's character, notably the foreshadowing of Diana wearing leopard print heels and Barbra going 'Rawr, they're hot'.
All things considered, I did enjoy aspects of Cheetah's character, granted its arguable that the geeky-gone-bad trope is overused. However, thematically I felt that as a character, she fit in quite well with the arch of the film, namely her introduction, friendship, innocence, motivation, character build up, how her greed and human nature and jealousy and imperfections all had a direct relation and spoke to the main discourse of the film which was one of wish, greed, selfishness and power in individualism.
I appreciate the multi use of the lasso but would have appreciated a slicker tighter feel to it, it felt like a rubber noose from a water hose just glowing in gold. I'd appreciate like a tighter or slicker feel to it, visually speaking.
Diana was quite soppy and grating in a lot of scenes, especially the ones with CGI in them which didn't quite deliver a spectacle in my opinion. Felt like they really faltered on the cgi aspect of department - visually speaking the opening sequence gave us more of a spectacle and atmospheric establishing than the scenes where she is flying in the clouds or flying aircraft etc.
Personally, the protagonist is lacking in being compelling because for a large portion of the feature length she is being present as ordinary Diana, almost to the point where you have to be reminded of her powers exclusively when she feels the need to showcase them. We unfortunately lose some of that glamazonian spark and force that is Wonder Woman and the narrative suffers from that consequently.
I would have liked to have seen more of the amazonian world actually which we were given a wonderful depiction of in the opening sequence with young Diana, just being intuitively intelligent as a kid, surpassing her elders in incomparable ways. And just having an exclusively and heavily female led community just thrive in their womanhood, strength, prowess, humility, honour and identity was really refreshing in the beginning.
I felt that it was a step in the right direction for a female-led superhero dc live action film to have some discourse on harassment towards women, despite the film having considerable peripheral barriers in terms of how deep they can get into that particular topic and content.
I thought Steve(?) was an okay comic relief in the film, andd one of my favourite moments which I enjoyed about the film was him just humanly and genuinely being astounded by the new inventions and new discoveries of the world in which he once knew and how civilisation has evolved and adapted to 80's, down to the 80's fashions, cars and the huge leaps mankind had accomplished at the time.
The antagonist I felt was very fitting and true to life to have like a tv personality and almost like an evangelist become the phony, greedy, malicious, competent and dangerous when he's given the tools to be but incompetent otherwise . I felt that the choice of making him look illustriously lousy was really reminiscent of politicians, specifically trump - ideals too, of course as a malicious tyrant, very scarily irate and accurate.
There was a sweet touch of detail with the 884 gold angel costume but I felt more interested as a viewer in Cheetahs final look (despite it not delivering what it had the potential of captivating). It was a massive let down to have Cheetah's final transformation look be showcased in utter complete darkness, when you think of Cheetah from the comics, the first visual colour queue which comes to mind is an obnoxiously bright yellow, ferocious colour, which (no pun intended) pounces right at you, why would that be best shown in a dark environment?
The fictional and non-fictional political ties which this film carries were irately familiar and ironic, for instance Diana's portrayal as this heroine of Egypt and Egyptian children specifically in one scene with them being saved from impending doom and then in reality being heavily contrasted with Gal Gadot's Pro-IDF political stance.
The charater I felt most emotionally invested in and wanted them to be protected was the antagonist's son, he just wanted a fundamental paternal affection and I am quite glad he was able to have that in the end. Super sweet and under rated character.
Lastly, the post credits scene paying homage to a certain actor was super sentimental, it was a nice nod.
The Devil All the Time (2020)
Deeply disturbing with very few characters you root for
The Devil All the Time's social commentary on religion being an opium of the people is really visceral and raw, that when you finish watching the film it truly
encompasses that even in a house of worship, it is highly possible for a counter force to be at work, in this case, it being the temptations of evil and the corrupt devil. There's so much corruption and toxic wrongdoings that you end up rooting for solely one character, who is the metaphorical driving hope in the film despite the town's strenuous complexities.
It offers great narration and also a great exploration of how each character's stories overlap with one another, fully bringing their small community and world to life gradually on film and motion picture.
It is a great synergy of genres, namely drama and thriller, as it somehow always sneaking in an unnerving feeling of lack of trust in the citizens of the town.
The Surrogate (2020)
As close to being socially responsible, selfless and emotionally righteous as they could come
This film raises tough questions and moral dilemmas and I love it for that and for so much more.
For starters, Jasmine Batchelor is impeccable in this film, she truly commands the emotional labour of being a pregnant m/c black woman who is morally and socially conscious and sensitive to catering to other people's needs and comfortabilities. Throughout the development of the film and her own character, Jess learns to be less accommodating of privileged able bodied people's comfortabilities and spaces and to open up the discussion for the advocation, support and enrichment of educating oneself more towards disabilities and disabled people's perspectives and lives, learning how and why they deserve to be treated as equals, no matter how chromosomes may differ or what preconceived limitations the majority of society may place upon them.
Metaphorically speaking, Jess guides us through her own journey as if we are being shaped in her own womb as learners and empaths in her appreciation for her own child and others who live with deficiencies. She does not have an idealistic ideology or mindset that parenthood is easily manageable and controllable, in fact she acknowledges that parenthood is inescapably difficult several times across the span of her journey and it makes her even more palatable as a character.
The tensions in the film are brilliantly conveyed, the intersectionality of being black and middle class v upper class v working class, is essentially communicated and the complicated nature of relationships are realistically portrayed and explored. And even with its final shot, it tugs you at your heart strings on how calming contraceptive experiences can be as well as complex, strenuous and difficult.
The Lobster (2015)
Concise and Critical on Society's Moral Values
The social commentary, exploration and criticism that it provides for societal expectations and norms of coupling, heteronormarcy, co-dependency, adulthood, a one sided toxic perception(s) or portrayal of 'romance', intimacy and sexual gratification, fascism and tyranny is actually quite intriguing to not only be challenged on but also with a viewing experience of The Lobster, it highlights that these social factors must be challenged, changed, applied individually and not collectively as humans are rather rather complex within ourselves.
We have to a moral standard that should be upheld and The Lobster does a great job in terms of highlighting how exactly we are able to go down immoral expectations of each other and ourselves. Ultimately, we do not have to uphold certain societal norms and values such as being subjected by fascism and toxic regimes, we hold power as people to change things for the better through challenging them firstly.
It portrays these immoral expectations and rules put in place by regimes by presenting a considerably extreme concept of coupling etc, however the message still stands strong and bold nonetheless.
I would like to think that Yorgos and Efthimis thought to provoke and incite commentary on a human's obsession with over saturated ideas of love and what gives life meaning altogether. Ideally, I see the film as a screenplay which is providing an argument which states that upholding tradition and powering through unstable unions is not the answer or the cure for loneliness, unhappiness and death.
Additionally there are some great notions to challenge on expectations of genre roles, gender role enforcement, support of patriarchy, subordination of women. The film really is succinct, gets to the point, found myself rooting for the protagonist, great exposition set up, shots and narrative progression.
This line alone sums up a lot of the film's exploration of union and how intrinsically toxic they are capable of becoming
'...If you encounter any tension, arguments that you cannot resolve yourselves, you will be assigned children, that usually helps a lot'