Post by friendofmilhouse on Apr 10, 2017 9:54:41 GMT
Apart From You (Japan-1933) dir. Mikio Naruse
An ageing geisha has a fraught relationship with her rebellious teenage son, who resents her for her occupation. Her friend and younger colleague takes the boy under her wings and the two of them grow close.
Tender and sensitive drama, even if Naruse feels the need to over-emphasise emotions by having the camera swoop into the the actors' faces every time something dramatic happens, and the teenage boy looks like he's pushing fifty.
***
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (US-1943) dir. Roy William Neill
The title didn't sound very promising, since Sherlock Holmes has about as much business being in Washington as a New York reality TV-star. Fortunately, Sherlock Holmes in Washington turns out to be a fun spy-adventure in which modern-day Sherlock has to retrieve a missing microfilm before it falls into German hands.
Highlight of the film is a great Hitchcockian scene in which an inconspicuous but important matchbook Macguffin keeps changing hands.
I do worry about Watson, who may have contracted some degenerative brain-disease, as he seems to be getting dumber with each film in the series.
***
Ill Met By Moonlight (UK-1957) dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Two British officers (Dirk Bogarde and David Oxley) come to Crete to kidnap a Nazi general and ship him to Cairo.
Fine, but fairly unremarkable war adventure. It also would have been nice if every single Greek character in the picture wasn't portrayed as a loud, boisterous stereotype.
**1/2
Ghost in the Shell (US-2017) dir. Rupert Sanders
I wasn't going to mention the whitewashing, which, looking from the outside, felt to me like a completely artificially created shitstorm: if you remake an Asian film in America, I don't think it's a Great Evil to re-cast it with American (Caucasian) actors, even if the unnamed city it is set in retains influences of the Japanese original. But then, halfway through the movie, we learn that Scarlett Johansson plays an Asian girl who has been 'perfected' into a white woman, which, especially since the makers just leave that there without addressing it, feels more than a little tone-deaf.
Other than that, Ghost in the Shell is a decent, if empty, futuristic cop-movie, with great set-design, looking like Blade Runner on steroids, and impressive visuals that often recreate the original anime frame by frame.
It also tries to have meaningful things to say about Man v. Machine, but fails, because it confuses complexity with convolutedness.
**1/2
Raw (France/Belgium-2016) dir. Julia Ducournau
A virginal girl (Garance Marillier, excellent), raised as a strict vegetarian by both her parents, enrols at university. During one of the many, disturbing hazing rituals the older (predominantly male) students inflict on the newbies, she is forced to eat meat. This one taste awakens within her strange new desires.
Raw is billed as a horror movie, but it's also much more than that: a family drama, a coming-of-age story, a college movie, a black comedy, as well as a powerful exploration of female sexuality. First time director Julia Ducournau manages to keep all these different plates spinning, which makes those moments of body horror all the more effective: they're not there to fulfil the expectations of genre-conventions, they are an intrinsic part of the unique world Ducournau has created.
Smart, funny, and stylish to boot, this is likely one of the most impressive debuts you'll see all year.
***1/2
An ageing geisha has a fraught relationship with her rebellious teenage son, who resents her for her occupation. Her friend and younger colleague takes the boy under her wings and the two of them grow close.
Tender and sensitive drama, even if Naruse feels the need to over-emphasise emotions by having the camera swoop into the the actors' faces every time something dramatic happens, and the teenage boy looks like he's pushing fifty.
***
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (US-1943) dir. Roy William Neill
The title didn't sound very promising, since Sherlock Holmes has about as much business being in Washington as a New York reality TV-star. Fortunately, Sherlock Holmes in Washington turns out to be a fun spy-adventure in which modern-day Sherlock has to retrieve a missing microfilm before it falls into German hands.
Highlight of the film is a great Hitchcockian scene in which an inconspicuous but important matchbook Macguffin keeps changing hands.
I do worry about Watson, who may have contracted some degenerative brain-disease, as he seems to be getting dumber with each film in the series.
***
Ill Met By Moonlight (UK-1957) dir. Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Two British officers (Dirk Bogarde and David Oxley) come to Crete to kidnap a Nazi general and ship him to Cairo.
Fine, but fairly unremarkable war adventure. It also would have been nice if every single Greek character in the picture wasn't portrayed as a loud, boisterous stereotype.
**1/2
Ghost in the Shell (US-2017) dir. Rupert Sanders
I wasn't going to mention the whitewashing, which, looking from the outside, felt to me like a completely artificially created shitstorm: if you remake an Asian film in America, I don't think it's a Great Evil to re-cast it with American (Caucasian) actors, even if the unnamed city it is set in retains influences of the Japanese original. But then, halfway through the movie, we learn that Scarlett Johansson plays an Asian girl who has been 'perfected' into a white woman, which, especially since the makers just leave that there without addressing it, feels more than a little tone-deaf.
Other than that, Ghost in the Shell is a decent, if empty, futuristic cop-movie, with great set-design, looking like Blade Runner on steroids, and impressive visuals that often recreate the original anime frame by frame.
It also tries to have meaningful things to say about Man v. Machine, but fails, because it confuses complexity with convolutedness.
**1/2
Raw (France/Belgium-2016) dir. Julia Ducournau
A virginal girl (Garance Marillier, excellent), raised as a strict vegetarian by both her parents, enrols at university. During one of the many, disturbing hazing rituals the older (predominantly male) students inflict on the newbies, she is forced to eat meat. This one taste awakens within her strange new desires.
Raw is billed as a horror movie, but it's also much more than that: a family drama, a coming-of-age story, a college movie, a black comedy, as well as a powerful exploration of female sexuality. First time director Julia Ducournau manages to keep all these different plates spinning, which makes those moments of body horror all the more effective: they're not there to fulfil the expectations of genre-conventions, they are an intrinsic part of the unique world Ducournau has created.
Smart, funny, and stylish to boot, this is likely one of the most impressive debuts you'll see all year.
***1/2