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Reviews 40 Soundoffs 68 News Articles 11 Band Edits + Tags 13 Album Edits 102
Album Ratings 2105 Objectivity 84%
Last Active 09-07-22 7:15 am Joined 05-07-11
Review Comments 4,031
| çíñémá enema 2017
to whet your appetite for my "eagerly awaited" "critic's critic" "absolutely nebbish" music list, which I will lucubrate tonight. this year has been dominated by my exploration in the medium, more so even than ol' homely stand-bys music and (c)lit as the movie theatre became a place of refuge. here are my favourites of the year with corresponding albums attached. also this is on New Zealand release time because we only get movies after they survive a treacherous journey at sea, if they arrive at all. | 15 | | ABBA ABBA Gold
The Trip to Spain - Michael Winterbottom. The ending is, admittedly, not great, but the formula of two basically regular dudes with possible delusions of grandeur and rueful eyes shooting the shit and doing pitch perfect (or not) impressions is eternal. Bless. | 14 | | Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet The Breadwinner
Personal Shopper - Olivier Assayas. In which Olivier assays us with a treatise on loss, love, confusion and the mundanity of the bourgeois, anchored by a deft turn from the much improved Kristen Stewart. | 13 | | Various Artists Polynesia - The Music of Hawaii - Tahiti - Samoa
One Thousand Ropes - Tusi Tamasese. Never has familiarity with a city been so important. Shot in my beloved and simultaneously loathed Wellington, it takes care only to frame it in low socio-economic areas. All trips to the graveyard, by the CBD, are shot at night, which is all you need to know about how the civil servants and "woke" populace cope with different skin colours in their midst. But the movie doesn't give Samoan culture and its violence off the hook, as so many others would. A powerful, brutally honest look at the cycles of trauma. NZ film of the year. | 12 | | Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka Mother OST
mother! - Darren Aronofsky. Biblical references and poetic allusions abound, but what really draws us is when Aronofsky puts down the thinking cap and let's his characters *be* in the midst of the maelstrom. An interesting balance of histrionic performance and cold, precise, almost austere film-making. Good shit. | 11 | | Chief Keef Back From The Dead
The Florida Project - Sean Baker. A woozy, immersive portrait painted in bright, primary colour. While I am sympathetic to the argument that Baker gazes on the marginalised through a fetishized lens -- Ken Loach he is not -- i was more sympathetic to Bria Vinaite's stunning, complex performance, which sold what could easily have tipped into sanctimony or leeriness. | 10 | | John Angaiak I’m Lost In The City
Wind River - Taylor Sheridan. The reason I like this is because Hollywood traditionally, and pointedly, ignores native american struggles under the colonialist superstructure AND mankind's capacity for emotions that are generally frowned upon; rage, avarice, self-loathing, the desire for vengeance, bloodthirst. The movie isn't pleasant but it isn't meant to be. | 9 | | AMM Combine + Laminates + Treatise '84
Toni Erdmann - Maren Ade. Marinade is right as Ade lets this one sit and percolate. Endless, but never gratuitous in its use of time (which is more than i can say, alas, for its use of nudity). | 8 | | Laurel Halo Antenna
The Untamed - Amat Escalante. Spanish lessons; horror lessons; oases of tedium lessons. | 7 | | New Vienna String Quartet Schoenberg: The String Quartets
Europa - Miguel Ángel Pérez Blanco. Spanish lessons; erotica lessons | 6 | | Peach Pit Being So Normal
Lady Bird - Greta Gerwig. | 5 | | Sufjan Stevens Seven Swans
Call Me By Your Name - Luca Guadagnino. About fucking time. | 4 | | My Bloody Valentine Loveless
Loveless - Andrey Zvyagintsev. Misery loves porn. | 3 | | Simple Affections Simple Affections
Brigsby Bear - Dave McCary. Like if the Lonely Island adapted Mysterious Skin. Reader, I wept. Copiously. | 2 | | Jeff Mills Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo
The Shape of Water - Guillermo Del Toro. Liquid. Get it. | 1 | | Angelo Badalamenti Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series
Twin Peaks: The Return - David Lynch. Cheating, but nothing affected me as much. I will never stop thinking about it. | |
Winesburgohio
12.30.17 | hellooooooooooo | Papa Universe
12.30.17 | 12, 9, 4, 2
goodie goods | Winesburgohio
12.30.17 | dude how good is 4 really, especially considering i thought Leviathan kinda ho-hum | Frivolous
12.30.17 | have you seen 6 yet? curious to hear your thoughts | Winesburgohio
12.30.17 | i really liked it! i like that it felt almost like a collection of short stories focalised through one character i guess, the episodic nature, and the acting was outta da park. it had its flaws but most of them felt like part and parcel of the film y'know? i can see it attaining greater heights on a rewatch too. Hmm | JeetJeet
12.30.17 | 10 and 12 were awesome. 12 in particular is one of the flicks that I still can't stop thinking about. | Toad
12.30.17 | just saw shape of water and it was just wonderful | verdant
12.30.17 | lol @ people who use "words" | butcherboy
12.30.17 | one thousand ropes sounds properly amazing!! Will definitely check.. great list, Wine | neekafat
12.30.17 | Did you just say Hollywood ignores "the desire for vengeance"? | neekafat
12.30.17 | But yeah, 12, 10, 6, 5, 2 are all amazing films
11 has one of the worst endings I've ever seen, but other than that it's great | Winesburgohio
12.30.17 | perhaps i should have specified hollywoods modern incarnation. but.
also please do butcher, i don't know anyone non-kiwi who hasn't seen it and i need to know your thoughts.
actually? it's çíñémá. please spell it correctly before you judge me. | Winesburgohio
12.30.17 | i devote my time exclusively to grading tobacco products these days on "sputnikcigarettes" tru tru | Winesburgohio
12.30.17 | (system of a down song) | Sinternet
12.30.17 | 5 is the only one i've seen here but it's amazing so good list | Havey
12.30.17 | would i dig any of these flicks | Winesburgohio
12.30.17 | i will NOT explain myself to you Havey / you might deign to give 13, 9, 8 and 4 a "two" tick but because these films were released this year and not in 1950's Cambodia you will probably hate them all on (((principle))) | Winesburgohio
12.30.17 | Bresson didn't direct ANY of these smh | Havey
12.30.17 | loveless will be my last movie of the year if you promise to watch à flor do mar
seriously i'm seeding the torrent download it right the fukc now | robertsona
12.31.17 | Great list and descriptions | Winesburgohio
12.31.17 | thank you :3, this is the first year where i've made an effort to watch new movies and mentally catalogue them a la music and it was, on that front, a good year.
@Havey yessss... yessss, this is my ethos... since i've showed you mine I suppose it's only fair i make this my own lastt film, shitty vimeo link here i come | robertsona
12.31.17 | A flor do mar is beautiful too, good rec from Havey | Havey
12.31.17 | nooo screw the vimeo link we're talking about sumptuous colour images to rival Francisca
also wheres the new kaurismäki on your list buddy? all this talk from you about finnish this, finnish that, but no appreciation for the national çíñémá smh | Snake.
12.31.17 | where is the emoji movie | Winesburgohio
12.31.17 | robertsona, there's a first time for everything!!!
i've heard the "finlandia" symphony and some Finnish rap and frankly that's enough Finnish "culture" for me. i will waste my precious data on a sumptuous rip though. you had me at Francisca
SnakeDelilah: probz up ur butt LOL | luci
12.31.17 | lady bird was stunning. checking florida project soon, will peek at the rest of the list since it seems super stellar | Winesburgohio
01.01.18 | you must! i'm going to watch Three Billboards tonight unless anyone here wants to intervene. if this doesn't repel my date nothing will.
argh the more i think about Lady Bird the more i dislike certain of the mumblecore aspects of it -- great direction, but i am a bit iffy on the writing, which dips into tired broad strokes more often than i'd noticed :(((( | Winesburgohio
01.01.18 | i have some bad news about the idiot human body's ability to become inured to vast quantities of alcohol in a short space of time :O :O :O | hal1ax
01.01.18 | just torrented Loveless. gonna check it tonight | hal1ax
01.01.18 | lol | parksungjoon
07.17.23 | lol |
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