Movies already seen in 2024
Jan. 22nd, 2024 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessThree weeks into the new year and, huh, I’ve been to the cinema to see four movies. It looks as though like I might manage to achieve my resolution to go to the cinema more in 2024 than I did in 2023.
The Boy and the Heron. Beautiful animation, obviously. I saw the Japanese version with subtitles – I was expecting it to be dubbed – and I lost a few things because of the white text against light backgrounds. It seems that you can’t comment on this film without clarifying your status in the Miyazaki fandom. I got into his films with Spirited Away, I’ve seen a few Studio Ghibli films from before it on the small screen, and I think I’ve seen all the rest when they came out in the cinema. I love Spirited Away to bits, everything else I’ve seen less.
There are three elements to this movie: the wartime setting (it’s 12A and not for young or sensitive kids, and is somewhat autobiographical, apparently), the family drama (and if that was part of the autobiography as a family member of mine claimed, that’s screwed up!), and the fantasy elements (could also be seen as having an autobiographical slant.) Ultimately, there were too many loose threads for me. I was also left wondering how many of the things I found weird and wonderful were just normal Japanese things (e.g. the vessel Mahito drinks water out of, the mobile in the delivery room) and whether what I was seeing (e.g. all the birds) had specific resonance in Japanese culture. But it is very beautiful.
Priscilla. This has exquisite production and costume design and soundtrack. I wonder how this will fare in the wake of/as a contrast to the recent Elvis movie, which I didn’t see. I loved the balance of sensitivity to what Priscilla was going through and the objectivity of Coppola’s camera. It’s essentially a two-hander, and I don’t know if the height difference was so pronounced between the real-life Elvis and Priscilla, but it works here. (Both Cailee Spaenly and Jacob Elordi are very good.)
Really, it’s Priscilla’s story. Given how and when she met Elvis Presley, it’s just like, how was this young teenager, who was experiencing what seemed to her like every bobbysoxer’s dream of first love to have a hope? From the outside, it looks abusive, bluntly. (The exploitation of ‘the Colonel’, never seen, of Elvis is mentioned, but our concern is with Priscilla, the girl woman.) The standout detail for me was that she took time out, when she’d started going into labour, to put on fake eyelashes before she left Graceland for the hospital. The last few years covered in the movie, as she grew up after becoming a mother and got a taste of prison release, felt a little rushed, I would have liked a few more scenes from that time, although the final couple of scenes are glorious..
One Life. Another movie based on real events. This an important story and well worth seeing, though it’s not as good a movie as Schindler’s List. The subject matter is similar, so it begs the comparison. Told in two timelines, Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn both play Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, who really did play a vital role in getting over 650 child refugees, mainly Jews, out of Czechoslovakia in 1938-9 to the UK. In the later timeline, decluttering has led Winton to wondering what to do with a scrapbook telling the story, which he thought was still relevant (as in 1987, so in 2024). I liked that it gave equal weight to the question of how do you live with having done something like that as the story of how he did it (with the help of forceful women played by Helena Bonham-Carter and Romola Garai). Arguably, I would have liked to tease out a few more details about the 1930s timeline, but it did get me emotionally. They play some cathartic moments very well.
I also watched Role Play on streaming (Amazon Prime). This is entertaining enough, and Amazon probably released it now as a taster for their TV remake of Mr and Mr Smith, to which I’m looking forward. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of films in this subgenre, although few that take the ‘married with kids’ angle. Kaley Cuoco is good, David Oyewolo is even better as the husband who slowly learns that his wife’s business trips involve carrying out hits. (I imagine I can’t be the only one who first came across him in ‘Spooks’ and so was half expecting his Dave to have a secret past of his won.) They make you care enough about the central couple. Bill Nighy has a grand old time and the antagonist is suitably twisted. It’s not up there with the original Mr and Mrs Smith or Hanna, but it does its job (and I found myself thinking I wouldn’t mind reading fic set before the film.) Whoever did the music has obviously watched Killing Eve. Speaking of...
The End We Start From. Watching this, I was reminded a bit of John Wyndham’s books, where Britain is changed in an instant and everyone must survive; here it’s because of extreme flooding. Thanks, climate change! But it’s told through a female lens (based on a book by Megan Hunter, adapted by Alice Birch, directed by Mahalia Belo) and follows Woman (Comer) whose waters break as the flood water comes into her house. It's as much an intimate portrayal of what it is to bring a new life into the world as a survivalist thriller. Comer is captivating carrying a film that’s mostly sparse, nearly always acting with a baby and supported by a good cast – there aren’t really any character names, other than the baby’s. Joel Fry does a good job as the babydaddy, Katherine Winterton shines as a more talkative fellow mother the protagonist crosses paths with, and it was really nice to see their supportive female friendship. It’s thought provoking about climate change, climate refugees and motherhood. (There were a couple of plot contrivances that creaked.) The sound design is rather good too.
[Edited for typos 30/12/24.]
The Boy and the Heron. Beautiful animation, obviously. I saw the Japanese version with subtitles – I was expecting it to be dubbed – and I lost a few things because of the white text against light backgrounds. It seems that you can’t comment on this film without clarifying your status in the Miyazaki fandom. I got into his films with Spirited Away, I’ve seen a few Studio Ghibli films from before it on the small screen, and I think I’ve seen all the rest when they came out in the cinema. I love Spirited Away to bits, everything else I’ve seen less.
There are three elements to this movie: the wartime setting (it’s 12A and not for young or sensitive kids, and is somewhat autobiographical, apparently), the family drama (and if that was part of the autobiography as a family member of mine claimed, that’s screwed up!), and the fantasy elements (could also be seen as having an autobiographical slant.) Ultimately, there were too many loose threads for me. I was also left wondering how many of the things I found weird and wonderful were just normal Japanese things (e.g. the vessel Mahito drinks water out of, the mobile in the delivery room) and whether what I was seeing (e.g. all the birds) had specific resonance in Japanese culture. But it is very beautiful.
Priscilla. This has exquisite production and costume design and soundtrack. I wonder how this will fare in the wake of/as a contrast to the recent Elvis movie, which I didn’t see. I loved the balance of sensitivity to what Priscilla was going through and the objectivity of Coppola’s camera. It’s essentially a two-hander, and I don’t know if the height difference was so pronounced between the real-life Elvis and Priscilla, but it works here. (Both Cailee Spaenly and Jacob Elordi are very good.)
Really, it’s Priscilla’s story. Given how and when she met Elvis Presley, it’s just like, how was this young teenager, who was experiencing what seemed to her like every bobbysoxer’s dream of first love to have a hope? From the outside, it looks abusive, bluntly. (The exploitation of ‘the Colonel’, never seen, of Elvis is mentioned, but our concern is with Priscilla, the girl woman.) The standout detail for me was that she took time out, when she’d started going into labour, to put on fake eyelashes before she left Graceland for the hospital. The last few years covered in the movie, as she grew up after becoming a mother and got a taste of prison release, felt a little rushed, I would have liked a few more scenes from that time, although the final couple of scenes are glorious..
One Life. Another movie based on real events. This an important story and well worth seeing, though it’s not as good a movie as Schindler’s List. The subject matter is similar, so it begs the comparison. Told in two timelines, Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn both play Nicholas ‘Nicky’ Winton, who really did play a vital role in getting over 650 child refugees, mainly Jews, out of Czechoslovakia in 1938-9 to the UK. In the later timeline, decluttering has led Winton to wondering what to do with a scrapbook telling the story, which he thought was still relevant (as in 1987, so in 2024). I liked that it gave equal weight to the question of how do you live with having done something like that as the story of how he did it (with the help of forceful women played by Helena Bonham-Carter and Romola Garai). Arguably, I would have liked to tease out a few more details about the 1930s timeline, but it did get me emotionally. They play some cathartic moments very well.
I also watched Role Play on streaming (Amazon Prime). This is entertaining enough, and Amazon probably released it now as a taster for their TV remake of Mr and Mr Smith, to which I’m looking forward. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of films in this subgenre, although few that take the ‘married with kids’ angle. Kaley Cuoco is good, David Oyewolo is even better as the husband who slowly learns that his wife’s business trips involve carrying out hits. (I imagine I can’t be the only one who first came across him in ‘Spooks’ and so was half expecting his Dave to have a secret past of his won.) They make you care enough about the central couple. Bill Nighy has a grand old time and the antagonist is suitably twisted. It’s not up there with the original Mr and Mrs Smith or Hanna, but it does its job (and I found myself thinking I wouldn’t mind reading fic set before the film.) Whoever did the music has obviously watched Killing Eve. Speaking of...
The End We Start From. Watching this, I was reminded a bit of John Wyndham’s books, where Britain is changed in an instant and everyone must survive; here it’s because of extreme flooding. Thanks, climate change! But it’s told through a female lens (based on a book by Megan Hunter, adapted by Alice Birch, directed by Mahalia Belo) and follows Woman (Comer) whose waters break as the flood water comes into her house. It's as much an intimate portrayal of what it is to bring a new life into the world as a survivalist thriller. Comer is captivating carrying a film that’s mostly sparse, nearly always acting with a baby and supported by a good cast – there aren’t really any character names, other than the baby’s. Joel Fry does a good job as the babydaddy, Katherine Winterton shines as a more talkative fellow mother the protagonist crosses paths with, and it was really nice to see their supportive female friendship. It’s thought provoking about climate change, climate refugees and motherhood. (There were a couple of plot contrivances that creaked.) The sound design is rather good too.
[Edited for typos 30/12/24.]
