What Movie Did You Just Watch

[Avaitor]

Nightmare Alley is on a small list of films I hope I get to see over my break, with Spider-Man taking top precedent, followed by Licorice Pizza. I also do hope to see Encanto and I'm considering Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but at this point I'm fine with waiting for the Blu release of the former, and wherever the latter ends up streaming.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Saw Matrix Resurrections, and I liked the film, but had issues with it.

-Recasts don't work. There's a scene near the end that would have had a thousand times more weight if Hugo Weaving was Smith instead of Groff.
-I wish the movie stayed with the tone of the first third where it's basically Wes Craven's New Nightmare. It's similar to the issue I had with Cloud Atlas where I really loved the first half of that film, but then it kept going long after I got the point.
-Fight scenes are a huge downgrade from the trilogy. But the non-action scenes have much more emotion than the past three films. The natural lighting helps.
-Flashbacks to the previous movies are overdone too. The movie's on shaky ground where it wants to satirize Hollywood's sequel/reboot love while mostly delivering the kind of sequel/reboot Hollywood churns out.
-On the plus side, Neo and Trinity's relationship has much more pathos in this film than in any of the other ones combined.
-Casting the John Wick director as the guy who cucks Neo was funny in a meta way.
-While I actually didn't think the movie was meta enough, I'm sure the movie's appeal depends on how much you like the movie leaning hard on metafiction. And whether the use here is self-indulgent or genius. I've been seeing audiences call it either the best or worst Matrix movie ever.
-For all it's worth, a better ending than Revolutions. The series-wide themes of purpose and choice are far better executed here than in the sequels.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Power of the Dog was okay. Not too sure why it's topping every film critics' list this year though. I get what it's going for, and I really liked the cinematography, but then it became one of those Westerns. I can't elaborate on that without spoiling the movie, but it gave me deja vu to other recent subversions of the Western genre. And Cumberbatch trying to do a cowboy accent was hilarious.

On the other hand, I also saw The Lighthouse. And that movie's fantastic.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Power of the Dog was okay. Not too sure why it's topping every film critics' list this year though. I get what it's going for, and I really liked the cinematography, but then it became one of those Westerns. I can't elaborate on that without spoiling the movie, but it gave me deja vu to other recent subversions of the Western genre. And Cumberbatch trying to do a cowboy accent was hilarious.

On the other hand, I also saw The Lighthouse. And that movie's fantastic.

Speaking of which, The Northman is legit one of my most anticipated movies of the year.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, Robert Eggers is 2-2 for me, and The Northman looks 100% like my shit. Cannot wait.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Don't know why I didn't watch Magnolia years ago, but I just finished and really liked it. I love those movies where all these seemingly unconnected plots and characters slowly intertwine, then that eureka moment happens and you go "Oh, that's what the movie means!"

[Dr. Insomniac]

Finally got to watching Dune. Great cinematography, loved the atmosphere, excited for what Villeneuve will do for Part 2, but I laughed at this scene.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just watched The Northman on Thursday night and absolutely loved it. It's definitely Robert Eggers' most straightforward and easily accessible film for anyone who found The Witch or The Lighthouse a bit too artsy or abstract for their taste, but it's executed incredibly well. It's more like a Norse myth brought to the big screen than historical fiction, so there are supernatural elements at play here, but I love those kinds of stories, myself.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Forgot to mention. Everything Everywhere All at Once was pretty cool, even if the ending's like "...okay?" on an emotional level.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Been on a movie binge lately. Some funny (A Dog's Will), some depressing (An Elephant Standing Still), some annoying (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), some classics (Barry Lyndon), and some classics that I thought were fine (Moonlight).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been in a phase where I wanted to revisit some older Don Bluth and Walt Disney animation, so I've been jumping back and forth on those a bit lately.

The Secret of Nimh still holds up incredibly well. There's always something appealing about a children's film not afraid to shy away from dark subject matter. I also think the score is incredibly well utilized and really enhances the emotional weight of various scenes.

I went back to watch The Rescuers, which Don Blush was on the animation team for back when he worked at Disney. It's a charming enough movie but it does suffer from the same issue as other Disney animated films from that era of playing it too safe and not doing anything noteworthy with it's story or animation style (the animation itself is still top-grade stuff, though).

I did immediately go onto The Rescuers Down Under even though I hadn't originally planned to. This one I have a lot of nostalgia for because I wore out my VHS copy watching the shit out of this movie as a kid (I believe it also had The Prince and The Pauper short). I still adore this movie beyond just nostalgia, and it baffles me how bad it did at the box office at the time as well as well as how forgotten about it is now. This was actually the first Disney film to integrate computer imaging technology with traditional hand-drawn animation (it predates Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King easily in this regard), and for a first attempt it still mostly looks really good. While I would never want a cheap, cash-grab Disney+ sequel or anything of that nature, it'd be great if it could eventually find some newfound popularity on the streaming service through good word of mouth. The movie deserves a second chance in that regard.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Watched The Northman and thought it was all right. Didn't like it as much as Lighthouse, and it's not as tight as it could be, but it's still fun. Also watched The Red Shoes earlier this week and loved that.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just saw Nope and loved it. It's not as good as Get Out and probably won't be for everyone, but it's the kind of thriller that just hits all the right notes for me. In particular, you can tell how much influence Peele took from Jaws here in terms of building suspense, among many other movies.

[Avaitor]

I'm hoping to see it on Sunday, and I'm pretty stoked. I still really like both Get Out and Us, and everything I've heard about Nope, while still being able to avoid spoilers, makes it sound like this will be another hit for me.

Until then, Quentin Tarantino recently started a podcast where he talks about various movies in his collection, and this made me realize that I haven't seen Carpenter's Dark Star yet. It's on Tubi, so I got to it yesterday, and it's not bad for a no budget debut. The set design is pretty nice despite being made for peanuts, but the blob is enjoyable laughable.

I think my favorite part of seeing this is noting how much of his script Dan O'Bannon would cannibalize for Alien in a few years. It really does read like a precursor in some ways.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Belle AKA Our War Game 3 AKA Hosoda's Beauty and the Beast was pretty fun. Always a treat whenever Hosoda goes back to his old sandbox and plays with how digital life affects real life. Ending was awkwardly inconclusive though.