pause--rewind--play-blog - Tumblr blog

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“I think anybody who falls in love is a freak. It’s a crazy thing to do. It’s kind of like a form of socially acceptable insanity.“

Her (2013) dir. Spike Jonze

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Call Me by Your Name (2017) dir. Luca Guadagnino

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You get to exhale now, Simon.  

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some favorite “Brothas from another mother” 

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Ex Machina (2014) dir. Alex Garland

This is the kind of movie I really enjoy when I think about science fiction. Movies that make you think if we should continue trying to progress even more. Are we not already smart enough with everything we have? With all the daily gadgets that we can't miss for one second. Do we really need artificial intelligence? Because let's face it, once that will be concrete then we won't do a thing by ourselves anymore. We will send our robots to our job, we will choose and model our life partner like we want them to be. The story of Ex Machina might be futuristic, but I certainly can imagine it like that in the future. All actors were good in their respective roles. For a movie that is filmed at the same spot all the time you certainly don't get bored for a second. Nice science fiction like there should be more of them.

8/10

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Dogtooth (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2009)

“Do you know what Dad will do if he finds out I lick your keyboard?”

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Paris, Texas (1984)

Directed by Wim Wenders Cinematography by Robby Müller

“I used to make long speeches to you after you left. I used to talk to you all the time, even though I was alone. I walked around for months talking to you. Now I don’t know what to say. It was easier when I just imagined you…”

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films without faces: Call Me by Your Name (2017) dir. Luca Guadagnino

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Atonement (2007) dir. Joe Wright

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Nocturnal Animals (2016) dir. Tom Ford

The second film from designer turned director Tom Ford was not just a visual masterpiece but had a great narrative. The plot of the movie which is three narratives combined into one and tells the story of Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) an art gallery owner who receives a manuscript of her ex-husband's (Jake Gyllenhaal) thriller novel dedicated to her. The way that the story was told was bold, strange and very unique to me. Even though a movie with three narratives might sound clumsy but it wasn't, the stories of different timelines did not overlap each other rather it made the story complete with showing different aspects of the characters. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's performance as Ray Marcus was definitely my favourite, he was so creepy and repulsive to watch. The brilliant Michael Shannon was also in this movie as Bobby Andes with great Oscar-worthy performance. Overall, I loved this movie for its visual look and appeal of it's leading characters. While I was watching the movie I liked Tom Ford's directing style, storytelling, cinematography and after watching it I started to think about it while connecting the dots between the different narratives and it easily became my favourite movie to think about. If you really like movies that make you think and eventually re-watch them over again then this movie is for you.

9/10

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Leon: The Professional (1994) dir. Luc Besson

This film, better known in the U.S. as "The Professional", is a wonderful and intense film. Jean Reno plays his role as a "cleaner" with incredible subtlety. Leon tries to keep his emotions completely suppressed, yet Matilda (in an extraordinary performance by a young Natalie Portman, who is destined to become a very powerful actress into her adult life) bring out in him a new-found joy for life that accompanies his growing paternal instincts. But, the most dynamic element of this film is undeniably Gary Oldman's performance as a wildly sadistic and crooked DEA agent with his own narcotic-induced demons. His obsessions eventually lead him to the brink of absolute madness in his hunt for the cleaner. Truly, this is Oldman's finest performance to date, worthy of Oscar glory.

9/10

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Heathers (1988) dir. Michael Lehmann

"Heathers" is one of the best films of the Eighties - put the lid on the Eighties, as it were. It has suffered criminal neglect, probably because it may have required an "indie auteur" to really knock the cinematic elements out of the park. The direction is competent but unspectacular. Still, the star is the writing, and Waters deserved an Oscar for this script. Unsentimental, vicious, and above all hilariously funny, he drove a stake through the heart of those oh-so-precious John Hughes films and, at the same time, set the stage for Kevin Williamson and all the rest. He did it with a perfect ear for dialogue combined with a Swiftian vision of social structures and did it all as an argument *against* ironic detachment, for which this film and its messages needs to be revisited now more than ever. Simply incredible.

8/10