Letterboxd — Your life in film

A wrenching one, acted with determined impassivity by Shyam Fernando and with vulnerability by the lovely Anjali Patil, and largely in the simplest of sets, a room with a view. A study of what we can bear to imagine vs what we can bear to know and live with day to day, and of the different ways in which we seek redemption.

The story is also one that depends on a viewer setting aside any disagreement they have with the…

March Around the World 2023
Film: 6/30 Country: Iran

"No one appreciates youth until they get old. Or life until they stare death in the face. If the dead could come back and live again they'd surely live better lives."

The films title is an accurate sentiment to the 95 minute runtime. Guilan and his son Puya travel through Iran after a devastating earthquake. There's no drama. No grand heroics. Instead, just simple moments as the pair drive through the…

March around the World 2023
4/30
Mongolia

I knew absolutely nothing about the Mongol Derby before watching this, so I was interested to learn about it. The worlds longest horse race sounds like an interesting topic, right? 

The topic itself is interesting, it’s just a shame that most of the participants didn’t seem like they were actually racing. The abundance of penalties for the horses’ heart rate is kind of ridiculous. I get that they want to make sure that…

First time I recall some disappointment with a Truffaut, falling a bit short of hype, and I'd always suspected this would be the case with Jules and Jim for some gut-reason.

It turns out to be a nice love 'triangle' saga with a somewhat mythic-implied woman, but compared to something later like The Woman Next Door the femme fatale tragic note taken here just doesn't feel very convincing at all. The film grows with the characters, getting more involving as…

Continuing my World Tour 2020 with a trip to Argentina, a country I almost always enjoy visiting for movie viewing.

The Distinguished Citizen, featuring a superb lead performance from Oscar Martínez, sees him playing a writer who decides to return to his home town in Argentina after winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. Said ceremony sets up this story brilliantly, as he speaks his mind frankly and clearly (in an awards speech even I can get behind) before he starts…

March Around the World 2023
Film: 1/30 Country: Norway

"I always worried something would go wrong, but the things that went wrong were never what I worried about."

What choices bring us to the place we end up, or the people we end up with? The Worst Person in the World asks (and answers) these questions in simple terms and through Julie's decisions. At times these decisions may seem inconsequential, but they lead to so much more. Collectively, these small…

March Around the World 2023
Film: 2/30 Country: France

"Ugliness is a kind of death... As long as I'm beautiful, I'm alive more than others."

Cléo from 5 to 7 explores a unique insight into the life of Florence 'Cléo' Victoire and her fixation on a newly diagnosed illness. Rather than seeing her progression over a long period of time, we only see her life (practically in live time) over the course of 1hr 30min.

The film is beautifully shot,…

My wife has this opinion about Kim Basinger, that she always looks sweaty? So she has shiny skin? I must admit I don't really care as long as she shows plenty of it. Adrian Lyne's erotic drama was right in the middle of his dirty phase. We had the steamiest dancing welder ever in the shape of Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, Basinger stripping and eating strawberries in this, and then Michael Douglas getting his balls in a sling after shagging…

Here's my take: This is about social media.

Pádraic is dull. He is simple. He means no harm. He is nice. Then his best friend takes a radical position, and it poisons him. A shitpost makes an otherwise gentle soul, albeit a boring one, and causes him to act out. This spiral of toxic behavior drowns everyone in hostility.

Colm is an ass. He is pretentious. He hides behind an artifice of sophistication. You can say he perhaps aspires to…