I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.
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| Kagemusha - A sprawling Kurosawa epic. |
Kagemusha (1980)
Watch Kagemusha on Netflix
Buy Kagemusha
Written by: Akira Kurosawa
Directed by: Masato Ide, Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara
Rated: PG
Plot:
A thief with an uncanny resemblance to a warlord is hired as a double. When the warlord dies, the thief must become the warlord.
Verdict:
Visually stunning in image and composition. Kurosawa never fails to deliver a stunning epic. It's a bit slow and the camera shies away from the many battles, I'm guessing a budget issue. It's an intriguing tale of duty and honor at the end of the feudal era in Japan.
Watch it.
Review:
This is part The Prince and the Pauper mixed with Kurosawa's typical period movies. The story is good, with a thief who looks just like a warlord, Shinjen. The thief was saved from execution and pressed into service for military advantage. Nakadai does a great job, in a dual role no less. He gets to play Shinjen and the thief and later the thief trying to impersonate Shinjen, but always on the verge of slipping out of the impersonation.
The thief has to pretend to be someone he's not while the generals have to accept an ignorant imposter in a ploy to win the war. The warlord's son feels contempt at having a thief promoted above him. Despite a number of close calls, the thief maintains the illusion until he gets too arrogant. He had to have gone from having nothing to having everything, but it's hard to enjoy it when you're just acting the part. He has to maintain the facade at all times.
It's technically big with many extras, but it lacks the action during battle. We see a few marches and the staggering after effects of a battle towards the end, but not the action in the moment.
It did seem strange seeing samurai with rifles. It's not how movies usually depict samurai, but this movie is set at the end of the feudal period.
It's well directed as Kurosawa's films always are. It doesn't just look good, every frame is expressive. This feels similar to Kurosawa's films like The Seven Samurai (1954) or Ran (1985), though I'd probably rank The Seven Samurai and Ran above it.
The score often feels out of place, completely divorced from the tone of the film. It turns out that Kurosawa had never worked with the composer before. I don't always notice music, but many pieces stuck out and not in a good way.
It's not a happy ending, but it is a really good ending. It's a tale of redemption, well the hope of redemption. The thief wants to regain what he never really had.
Read my Jurassic Park review
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| Believeland - Earnest Byner of the Cleveland Browns |
Watch Believeland on Netflix
Buy Believeland
Directed by: Andy Billman
Rated: --
Plot:
A look at the Cleveland sports curse.
Verdict:
This doesn't feel like a 30 for 30. The best ones explore a story in detail, revealing facts you didn't know. Believeland feels like bullet points from wikipedia in video form. It's too broad of a story to be a true 30 for 30. Exploring Art Modell's rise and betrayal in Cleveland or Lebron James start as the top high school basketball talent and his eventual return to Cleveland could both be good stories, but they are just footnotes in this documentary.
Skip it.
Review:
Cleveland is the only city with three professional sports team that hasn't won a championship in the last fifty years.
This looks at the Cleveland Indians, Cavaliers, and Browns. With such a broad look at each team, it never has a chance to delve into what happened behind the scenes or why these teams seemed to implode whenever a championship was close.
I want a 30 for 30 to tell me something I didn't know and entertain. The episode is a chance for Cleveland fans to complain... and then complain more.
Eventually it gets into a few stories that could be good explored individually. Art Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore, but it's a much bigger story that this episode doesn't explore enough. There are surprisingly few interviews. Did this episode not have the budget other ones have had? Were athletes not willing to talk?
The '95 Indians who lost the World Series to the Braves are mentioned. Lebron grew up in Akron, made it to the Cavaliers and then bolted to Miami to win a championship before coming back home. His story feels relevant just because the Cavs are in the final, but it also feels contrived. This isn't a true 30 for 30.
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| Belle de Jour -It's... interesting. |
Buy Belle de Jour
Written by: Joseph Kessel (novel), Luis Buñuel and Jean-Claude Carrière (adaptation)
Directed by: Luis Buñuel
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli
Rated: --
Plot:
A housewife decides to spend her afternoons as a prostitute.
Verdict:
It's a psychological film that prompts you to wonder why people think and do certain things. How does trauma affect people? You're never sure where fantasy begins or ends.
Watch it.
Review:
This is a French film with subtitles. The title is a play on words. It translates to lady of the day which is a play on lady of the night.
The movie drops you right in the middle with a scene of Séverine being beaten in the woods, given by her husband to an older man. It turns out this scene is Séverine's fantasy, and she has some odd ones.
Despite her sexualized fantasies, Séverine had a difficult time being intimate with her husband. They sleep in separate beds. Séverine's intimacy issues stem from a childhood trauma by an older man. It's a scene so quick, you're not sure what exactly you saw.
It's this trauma that has made intimacy difficult, but also has led to her fantasies of domination by older men. That trauma has affected her whole life, whether she realizes it or not.
The French appear to be more open about prostitutes. Everybody visits them, it seems. Séverine is curious. Her views on sex are non-standard. Does she want to explore her fantasies or does she want to fulfill a sexual need that obviously isn't satiated at home?
Séverine begins work as a prostitute, but just in the afternoons so that she can return home before her husband. We can only assume she works to fill the void, or at least to explore the void. Her first encounter causes her to reconsider. It's not normal, but she finds fulfillment. Her relationship with her husband also improves.
Séverine's fantasies have become a reality. Is she daydreaming or is it really happening? She's meeting men that dominate her, just like her fantasies.
Séverine meets Marcel, a gangster, through the brothel. She leaves her brothel job due to Marcel's jealousy and control issues.
The end makes you wonder if the plot was a dream, but that's also selling it short. Séverine has always had fantasies, but now they aren't sexualized. She's wishing for a better life... or her former life. It's brought her back to reality in a way. Her current situation is harsh, but she also was part of the catalyst.
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