Looking the Movie (2016) - Andrew Haigh

I love the tag line for the movie, “The end is a new beginning”. 

The final chapter of the HBO series Looking, a year later after where season 2 ended. Patrick (Jonathan Groff) comes back to San Francisco for a weekend to attend a wedding. 

Obviously, this movie is about closures. Maybe I am a bit basis, I have been and always will be “Team Kevin”, the scene where they meet for the last time just breaks my heart. I feel like it has happened to all of us before. There are a lots of “what if” throwing in the air, I am not saying we should just forgive our cheating boyfriends and start all over again. It’s more about facing the problem, how you handle your emotions and most importantly how you deal with it. Running, of course is a solution but it will probably lead you nowhere. Relationship is about “the spark”, yes, but the most crucial thing is how you work it out. Every relationship has their ups and downs, but if we always run away from them, what good does it do to us? The whole Kevin situation happened because Patrick is running away from his problems with Richie in the first place. 

What I love about Looking the series and the movie in general is how the show runners and the creators convey the emotions we all have, yes, it is a gay-themed series, but it happens to we all. It will be equally good even if it’s a heterosexual series. 

I guess the reason why it didn’t work with the audience is because it’s too real, too cruel. They are just like Patrick turning away from their problems and try to turn a blind eye to what is really happening around them. People hate conformation, they like something they could relate to but not too much. 

I love the idea that the movie could be called “the weekend” too, if you what I mean.

Frantz (2016) - François Ozon

In Ozon film univers female characters are always significantly important and complex. Anna (Paula Beer) is not an exception. One day she stumbled upon a french man known as Adrien (Pierre Niney) visiting his fiancé’s grave, not long a relationship between a german “widow” and a french men develops in the post-WWI circumstances where the two nations don’t see eye to eye with. 

Later we find out that their relation is built on a lie. Quite a visual interpretation from Ozon, whenever the movie is in colour, it is a lie. Reality, black & white. (Ozon stated in interviews that he wanted to make a film about “le mensonge” (a lie), so technically it is not a spoiler.) The fact that he visually manipulates the images amplifies the degree of the impact, it is like he controls the switches of our hearts. With a flick of his finger we are in this faux impression of happiness and seconds later he brings us back to reality. Some people might think he is trying too hard to manoeuvre the audience, sorry but I am struck. I was so drawn to Adrien’s grief maybe it’s Ozon or the magic of him and Niney and later the dilemma of Anna. No matter which it’s a solid performance.

At times, you wished Ozon had had worked on more on the images since, at least I did got distracted by composition of some imageries. However you are way too busy to play attention to a lot of the details, Frantz is 90% in black & White and 90% in German. You have to be fluent in both languages in order the ignore the subtitles. Maybe that’s why? I know what I am suggesting it’s not well justified but still I enjoyed the experience.

Life is cruel and we all live in a lie (in one way or another), that’s the best I could do without giving too much away on what’s the story is about. Ozon never really disappoints so just watch it. 

Life - Anton Corbijn

Life is a really simple story about the beginnig of 2 artists - James Dean and Dennis Stock play by Dane Dehaan and Robert Pattinson. 

I love biopics and Life is a compelling story but it is missing something. When there aren't much happening in the movie is hard to convey emotions. A lot is happening in the movie, I mean metally for both of the characters but the artors are struggling to bring those delimmas on the big screen. It was a really plain performance by the two leads.

The thing is I don't really get why they casted Dehaan for the role for James Dean, he doesn't phyiscally fit the role nor his appearances. Yes James Dean might be awkward, but awkwardly talented and handsome. Dehaan just gave us awkward period. On the other hand Pattinson just barely made the mark.

I felt like it was kind of a waste to see a good movie got downgraded because of the performances of the cast.

"Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean" is a better example of the interpretation. Yes it might be a bit too expiremental for mainstream cinema but at least in my opinion it lives up to the standards more than "Life" does.

Wrong Cop - Quentin Dupiex

This month feature in Cahier du Cinéma, there is a detailed coverage of Quentin Dupiex. And Dupiex, himself wrote an "auto critiques" for all his movies (most) with a little commentary and how much he rated them out of 10. And Wrong Cop is the front runner with 8.5/10 (Rubber only got 5.5/10). Of course I am extremely intrigued by the fact that Wrong Cop is his personal favourite and naming it more matured and well developed then his other works.

I started to notice his style. First, the music he uses. He creates his own music, (Dupiex is also an electronic musician under the name Mr. Oizo.) It's not like Daft Punk or Justice. It's not like deep house, I would say something in between and I found it suits his story telling very well. Second, an epic monologue (in my opinion, even he said he is leaving the imagination to the audience but he is consciously guiding us to the way he wants us to think.) And third his subtle humour. Slow, but it's funny. 

Wrong Cop is basically about how corrupted the cops are. There is a saying in Chinese, "Police are just well dressed gangsters". It sums up the movie pretty well in terms of the plot. From selling drugs to blackmailing and sexually harassing people. 

The way he thinks is very interesting, however, it's really subjective. Personally, I found the idea behind Rubber is way more intriguing. Not that Wrong Cop is any less. What he tries to portrait in Wrong Cop was a bit more political and visual. The understanding of the universe. I would say the idea came across quite clear, less mysterious. It makes me wonder what is more important,

True, Wrong Cop does have a more developed plot but it misses the "shock" factor Rubber gives us. 

Rubber - Quentin Dupieux

I felt like every month I'm learning a little more about the cinema world. Exploring different genres, styles and their theories. Last month I went full force with Larry Clark and almost ended in a really  bad note. I guess I will take some time off from him and revisit his works later. Back to my curious  but yet quite positive about this new "experiment" - Quentin Dupieux.*

I have heard a lot about "a movie about a tire who kills people". According to different people around me, artists, film lovers, my boyfriend and people who don't go to the cinema often told me it is a Cult movie which I shouldn't miss. Finally, found an excuse and time to actually sat down and watched it. (I can't believe even my boyfriend had watched and I, a self-claimed movie-lover hadn't!)

It's actually quite funny, really subtle humour. Don't let the killer thing fool you, it's just a candy wrapping. What's really inside is way more interesting. Rubber starts with a really promising concept. A movie about "no reason". Why people make movies,  no reason, why people are thinking, no reason, why we do this or that, no reason. This is no such thing as no reason, everything we see, we touch, we feel, there are reasons behind them. Are they a solid reason maybe maybe not. And  Duplex knows it and he plays along with it pretty well. He is actually leading your nose without you noticing (Maybe I am interpreting too much). According to one of his interviews, he said his movies are more for people to interpret, "to make the movie your own."

I will break the movie down in 3, one: the spectators, two: the "Actors", and three "the tire". Why those 3 things, no reason. Dupieux gave them something more than their lines (one literally no line). Something bigger then they are to tell us something. Things just happen for no reason, stop doubting yourself and just be a tire. Or questioning the authority, or just be a bystander. Which one you prefer?

*Dupieux' new movie Réalité is going to be in cinema this month and as usual there is a detailed feature in Cahiers du Cinema. (and yes I sort of got the idea from it, and still I refuse to read anything until I watch the movie.)

Blue is the Warmest Colour - Abdellatif Kechiche

"La Vie d'Adèle"

If you like lesbian sex, you would love this movie!

Despite my limited french I still went in to the cinema and tried to conquer this year's Palme d'Or winner.

I would like this movie more if it were shorter (at least 1 hour please), this 179 mins flick is not for everyone. 1/6 of the movie is basically graphic lesbian sex, by graphic I meant porn. Only if I were watching porn, I could at least skip to the interesting part! I felt like I was forced to watch almost all the possible ways lesbians could do it. (if you are into this kind of stuff, then I promise this is the movie for you). I was not prepared for this. At one point it was too predictable that what they are going to do next. Yes, the title already says it all, the life of Adele, I'm stupid enough not to put into thought that sex is one of the MAJOUR elements of ones life. It's just too much for me, that's all.

In general, it's a good movie. How Adele struggles to her live her life and deal with her sexuality, are pretty intriguing. We could easily find movie depicting gay people dealing with their problem but not a lesbian. I'm not saying there aren't any, it's just harder.
One advice, just prepare yourself before you walk into the cinema for this blue experience.

WIll update this when I watch it again with subtitles. 

The Bling Ring - Sofia Coppola

This is a movie about how fame-obsessed our generation is becoming. Totally understand why Coppola put her hands on this topic. The flick directs us to the crime, the obsession, the truth is, the picture is way bigger.

I wonder how many of our younger generation check the boxes of what the movie depicts, not only they were  raised by consumerism under their roof, they are also in the age of social network. Let's put aside the crime for a second, if, I'm just saying only if they hadn't bragged about their visits or posting pictures (self obsession) on social network with acclaimed items, they wouldn't have been caught that easily. How many teenagers got caught per year because they bragged about their crime on social networking sites. I am not encouraging them to commit any crime but if they do, please be a little smarter! (For me this is actually something really sad, the brains of our younger generation are actually deteriorating.)

The rest of the story is just old wine in a new bottle. Same old reasons why teenagers commit crimes - single-parent family, peer pressure those kind of stuff. That's at least pretty much sum up the two leads in the flick Marc Hall (Israel Broussard) and Rebecca Ahn (Katie Chang). What interesting is when all the characters come together, how each of them represents a certain a type of teenagers. The insecure one, the bossy one, the bitchy one, the innocent one, the fake one. I would say they are troubled kids and the fact is they are basically everywhere. And who should we blame, the child or the parent?  Nicki Moore (Emma Watson) is the perfect example. How ignorant if the parent truly believed Nicki was innocent and nothing suspicious about her child, considering her kids went out late on a school night, having suspicious new dresses and stuff. (the real life Nicki (Alexis Neiers) is actually really intriguing, she got caught right after she filmed the pilot of her own reality show, and was placed right next to Linsey Lohan while she was in jail.)

Alright the crime, I think what made them bolder was Paris Hilton, the movie didn't touch on this matter much as Paris herself agreed on letting them film at her place but it didn't cover the fact that how stupid she was (in the original press release of the actual crime, the convicts dubbed her dumb as a reason why they broke into her apartment and it might actually be true!) They have at least broke into her place for like 7 times. Not until Miranda Kerr reported the crime with a surveillance TV footage, then Paris noticed that she had also been a victim too. If breaking into someone's property is like eating a piece of cake, key under the door mat, don't you think the kids would be encouraged? Or maybe the kids were not as stupid as we thought they were, despite the fact that they posted pictures of themselves at Paris' place on facebook. Is either Paris or the kids or both, you pick. 

This is a reminder to us of what we are doing to our kids. 

On The Road - Walter Salles

Not until the credits rolled up and Neal Cassady's name appeared on the screen then I realized this movie is about the Beat Generation. The bromance shared between Cassady and Kerouac was sort of like playing with fire (I really have to read the original), I need reasons why Cassady left his wife and found Kerouac, I need to know why they were so close, what connected them.

The frame of the movie is such an interesting story, a wonderful piece, perfectly depicting the generation in the 50s. What Jack Kerouac did was actually documenting his generation, one person in particular Dean Moriarty/ Neal Cassady. They were like the rock bands in the 70s and 80s but they were much more sophisticated, they were all writers. (I believe youth do drug in all scales, not only in one particular group of people. Only people in that group were not ashamed of what they were doing and saying it out loud makes the difference.) Everyone behind this story was interesting enough to have their own story/movie. Allen Ginsberg did, Howl. It would actually be more interesting when you start reading all those writers back in that time and start putting missing puzzles together.

What intrigues me is the story not the movie. Somehow the story and the movie are disconnected. The cast is not convincing enough to make me believe as ke$ha sings “let’s make most of our night like we’re gonna die young”. Kristen Stewart is a one-trick-pony, flashing her boobs doesn’t make her a good actress.