Letterboxd - Edgar Cochran &#10013;&#65039;

A TRILOGY REVIEW

The “Argentinian Revolution” is the name with which the civil-military dictatorship defined itself which overthrew the constitutional president Arturo Umberto Illia through a coup d'état on June 28th, 1966, and governed the country until June 25th, 1973. The “Argentinian Revolution” did not present itself as “provisional” like all other preceding coups, but pretended to establish itself as a new permanent dictatorial system, later associated with the concept of Authoritarian Bureaucratic State (EBA), term that was coined by the Argentinian political scientist Guillermo O’Donnell in 1975 from the analysis of the military dictatorships of Brazil (1964), Argentina (1966 and 1976), Chile (1973) and Uruguay (1973).

The Hour of the Furnaces is potentially the most furious sociopolitical statement ever filmed in Latin America. It goes beyond establishing an ideology and pulling a propagandistic agenda; it is, literally, a call to arms, a shout for the people to stand up and initiate a revolution against the evils of neocolonialism.

Remembering that “propaganda” is not a necessary derogatory or diminishing term when it comes to storytelling in cinema, either fictional or non-fictional, the group “Cine Liberación” proposes an open debate with a landmark open-mindedness about the ideas presented in their sociopolitical and historical-economic proposals under the ideology that the ideas and visions, not of a single individual in power, but that of the people will lead to a higher truth, a prosperous consensus and a shape-shifting nationwide revolution which is considered imperative for the complete deconstruction and reconstruction of a nation under the clutches of classism, globalization, progressivism, developmentalism and imperialism.

Part I: Neocolonialism and Violence

The group “Cine Liberación” considers the understanding of historical, cultural, political, indigenous and territorial roots, and that of the current numbers of the totality of territorial, natural, mineral and geographic resources of the country of fundamental importance for the audience, including the urban structure of Buenos Aires, which was by then the biggest city of Latin America.

Establishing its arms race intentions since the beginning with citations of Perón, Fanón, Hernández Arregui and Che Guevara, among others political and literary speakers, we extract conclusions such as the following:

1) My second name: Offended. My name: Humiliated. My civil state: Rebellion.
2) The history taught to us is fake, and so are the world perspectives presented to us, and the economic beliefs that were spread to us.
3) The Argentinian problem is essentially political. In order not to be a colony, a sole option lies: the power to the people.
4) The duty of any revolutionary is to make revolution (Fidel Castro).
5) No social order can be suicided.
6) A town without hate cannot triumph. The colonized man sets itself in and through violence.
7) The time is approaching when the uncivilized will educate those in charge of civilization.
8) Our action is a scream of war against the imperialism and a clamor for the unity of the peoples against the great enemy of the human race: the United States of America

The number of Latin American testaments and histories, including the time in which we achieved our respective independence, where the United States of America appears as a cancerous, intoxicating, imperialist and expansionist cyst, as a “supporting character”, where all it does is the entire opposite of “support”, seeding venom seeds through political, military and financing interventionism against the inherent structure of the social order of each Latin-American nation. It’s a world superpower which foundations are established over a great portion of the world’s blood.

The documentary proposes that all Latin American citizens are brothers. However, it also presents a thesis that forbids me to give this a perfect mark to this piece, beyond a typo in the middle that missed a letter “t”: the idea of violence and hatred being necessary for a nation to reconstruct itself through the revolutionary method is massively problematic and contradictory, let alone antibiblical. Hate is what intrinsically destroys the human race. “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39; John 13:34)

Moreover, if violence is a manifestation against powers that have taken advantage of all possible resources at people’s reach, and have subsequently caused an inequal distribution for benefitting the bourgeoisie and the upper classes, including those in the Parliaments and the Congress, it is exceedingly difficult to discern those situations in which violence and brute force will be the determinant means through which a nation will be able to be free. In the Bible, God determined when a city or an individual had reached the point of no return so that either the people of Israel or warriors specially chosen by God reestablished the order in towns beyond the point of salvation that were going to spread their sinful, idolatrous, formicaries and demonic doctrines to the rest of the nations, nations that God had prevented Israel to stay away from in order not to emulate their life styles and philosophies (Deuteronomy 18: 9-13).

The first part closes with the ideological Yankee plague that has been ingrained in the Latin American heart: their films, magazines and other forms of communication try to depoliticize the nation, sow skepticism and evasion, develop a prejudice and a complex against everything native: “they teach to think in English”. “Their mass media communication is more effective for them than napalm.”

Nothing further from the truth.

Part II: Act for Liberation

Consisting of two parts, “Chronicle of Peronism” and “Chronicle of the Resistance”, this chapter retakes the evils of Yankee imperialism as an international system that must be defeated in an international battle. Latin America, Africa and Asia are put within the same revolutionary spectrum: revolution is a necessity and is our common denominator. The coexistence with imperialism is an act of legalizing its barbarism, a submissive endorsement.

Before introducing Peronism, Yrigoyenism is referenced as the origin of Argentinian social justice movements in 1916, when Hipólito Yrigoyen was first chosen as president of Argentina, conducting a conservative hegemony of over 40 years. Although criticized for governing under a “personalist” leadership and a handful of radical actions, his legacy left an ideological current within Argentinian radicalism. Many Yrigoyenists later integrated the ranks of Peronism.

Juan Domingo Perón was a politician, military man and writer, three times president of Argentina, and key participant of the period denominated as the “Infamous Decade” (1930-1943), which begins with the civil-military coup d'état that overthrew Yrigoyen and ends with the military coup d'état that overthrew the conservative president Ramón Castillo. Fernando E. Solanas presents Perón as the emergence of the national expression of a population resolved to achieve its definitive independence.

The chapter also reflects on the world status in 1945: the inter-imperialist world was ending, a new repartition of the world began, there was still no Chinese Revolution or the so-called popular democracies, the Arab nations were not liberated, India was not still a Republic, colonialism prevailed in the greater portions of Asia and Africa, and, in the name of Marxism, an idea was encouraged: the Soviet and Yankee armies marched together towards the liberation of all nations. The “Third World” was a pilot project.

Hence, the emergence of Peronism in this time was a precursor fact, and in a new Argentina, the national intellectuality would lose its course again, exactly like Yrigoyenism. The justicialist revolution came to break all its schemes. It was not led by an enlightened vanguard, but by a group of military men; there were no more red flags, but those white and blue, the Argentinian flag.

The alternative denomination of “justicialism” was inspired in the importance granted by this movement to the social justice. Once Peronism became part of the law, the opposition appeared, known as antiperonism, which exerted great political influence as an inorganic movement and cascaded its resistance to the 1963 Argentine Navy revolt, conflict better known as “Blues and Colored”. Peronism also was organized in the Feminine Peronist Party founded by Eva Perón, exclusively formed by women, which was dissolved by the civic-military dictatorship installed in 1955, led by Eduardo Lonardi.

At this moment, the second chapter acquires its most disturbing and disheartening force on par with The Battle of Chile (1975), where Peronist civilians and politicians were assassinated on the streets. The attempts of Perón to call for a truce were futile, as the country was already divided, so Perón resigns from the presidency after the intervention of armed forces, with the only supporting remnant being the unionized proletariat, while the oligarchy took advantage to strike. “Once again, the Argentinian intellectuality serves the enemy”.

The documentary concludes that the defeat of 1955 irrevocably proves that the struggle for national liberation is inseparable from the classes struggle; a national revolution will not triumph if it is not transformed into a social revolution at the same time.

The most surprising and valuable offering from the present second chapter, and probably from the entire documentary, is an exclusive interview with Perón filmed on September 2nd, 1968, and it is extremely revealing. Perón states that the triumph of his movement was backed up by over two thirds of the electoral power of Argentina. Their commitment was to carry out the revolutionary reforms that had been proposed since the revolution through a bloodless system. When subversive generals opposed through violence, Perón was convinced they had to be subjected to justice trough prison. However, if Perón had opted to answer fire with fire, shooting the oppressors, “everything might have ended sooner”. Ergo, he confesses he made a grave mistake and should have authorized mobilization and the execution of all rebel generals and to all people in command on the side of treason: a violent response should have been implemented against an opposition that had in mind to rebel through violence, which they did.

Be on the lookout of the interview of historian and lawyer of many unions, Rodolfo Ortega Peña. He’s passionate about the idea that the true task of any leftist revolutionary is to be a Peronist and fulfill the task of the Peronist mass movement. It’s a hysterical sequence.

For concluding the “Chronicle of the Resistance” segment, a thesis is shown: Neocolonialism has acquired another victory with the intervention of two armies, a revolutionary one and a counter-revolutionary one:

“That anticolonialism army that would organize San Martín for the independence, has been replaced by a neocolonialist army prepared by the Pentagon to impose dependence”. This cascades into a brief depiction of the student’s movement, a common denominator in many Latin American countries during the late 60s, and closes with one of the best scenes ever filmed: a destroyed nation, a Godless one, with a large tracking shot of the impoverished middle classes under the rhythm of the song Preguntitas sobre Dios.

Why do we seek God after we have forgotten about Him and face life alone?

Part III: Violence and Liberation

Violence, ergo, is the answer, correct? Sartre said that the marks left by violence won’t be erased by any type of benevolence; only violence can destroy them.

This is a cyclical course, and reminded me of why I condemned the main thesis of the first chapter. However, amidst its dangerous ideology, this is the shortest part that runs under an hour, and presents an overwhelmingly intimate and poetic look at survivors and victims of torture methods during the aforementioned governmental regimes: anecdotes of executions, shootings and worker repressions are discussed in the sincerest way possible, and the cinematography goes from a warlike nature to a contemplative one, an ethereal relief of reflection, particularly at the 204-minute mark. It is simply astonishing, and the dissonance becomes more disturbing when these natural sceneries are silent witnesses of the macabre retellings of inhuman acts committed against the victims in the most explicit detail (viewer discretion is advised). The impotence is exacerbated when the perpetrators faced impunity due to their political roles in the pyramid of “power”.

Similarly to the future The Battle of Chile, this part focuses on the people, the ones that live in fear of suffering traumatizing violence again, inhuman treatments, persecution and marginalization. This is the neocolonialist Yankee monster breed, the imperialist eater of “Third World” countries, a term I will forever find derogatory.

What should the people choose? The dictatorship of the privileged, or national liberation (John William Cooke, Argentinian lawyer and politician)? While the country makes a decision, the thousands of anonymous martyrs will increase.

99/100

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The Battle of Chile: Part III, 1979 - ★★★★★

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 19:01:48 +1300

A TRILOGY REVIEW

“Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”
-1 Samuel 8: 7-9

Glorious humanist document embodying flawless cinematic perfection. A behemoth of a social statement inevitably intertwined with the political sphere of humankind, proving that all government systems and ideological propositions are doomed to fail as long as they are not inspired by the Word that God left and as long as they are not put into practice, not a utopian one, but one that was originally envisioned for people to prosper, including those in power. God puts and removes kings and rulers (you name the political title) and He commanded us to make petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving for all those that are in authority, since this is good and pleases Him, it does us well (regardless of our support or lack thereof), so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness (1 Timothy 2: 1-3).

The inequality of opportunities, the unequal distribution of mineral, natural, social, political and educational resources, and a distorted and divided vision towards life have procreated diverse perspectives / ramifications concerning the ideal government model which, intrinsically, due to the presence of opposing systems, will culminate in conflict and in division of powers (divided vision = division).

Part I: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie

Salvador Allende Gossens became president of Chile on the 3rd of November of 1970 and ignited in the country what is considered by a significant portion of historians as the most ambitious process of social, economic and political changes that Chile ever witnessed in its entire history. Hero for many and controversial figure for others, Allende was the standard bearer of the Popular Unity. He did not only become the first socialist mandatary in the world to be elected democratically, but also the first leader to attempt to move towards socialism through the pacific route, also called “Chilean path to socialism” (“la vía chilena al socialismo”).

His basic government program contemplated the construction of a popular state and a planned economy, mostly nationalized. Despite that the Law of Nationalization of Copper was approved without opposition in the congress, the same thing didn’t happen with the efforts to nationalize the big enterprises. Since it didn’t count with a parliamentary majority, the government decided to draw upon a forgotten, albeit current decree, dictated during the Socialist Republic of 1932. The latter allowed the government of the Popular Unity to expropriate any industry that was considered strategic for the economy.

On top of the expropriation, which was generally preceded by the takeover of the industry by its workers, the government used other mechanisms, such as the purchase of shares, which allowed it to control nearly the 80% of the industries and an important number of banks. In the agricultural sector, the process of the Agrarian Reform was deepened initiated by the government of Jorge Alessandri and accelerated by the government of Eduardo Frei Montalva.

The Agrarian Reform, during the first decades of the 20th Century, maintained a traditional agricultural structure founded on the predominance of large estates and a rigid social authoritarian and paternalist hierarchy. In view of this situation, the demands for an Agrarian Reform were a proposal of the progressist sectors of the country since the beginning of the century. Such was the case of the presidential campaign of the Popular Front in 1938.

During the beginning of the 1960s, the pression for an agrarian reform reappeared in the Chilean society. This time, it had the support of the Catholic Church, which distributed its own lands among the peasants and had the aid of the United States (our favorite participant in the colonialist, imperialist and exploitative stories of Latin America) through the “Alliance for Progress”, a program of economic and social aid established by John F. Kennedy in 1961 that took the example of the Cuban Revolution.

With this Agrarian Reform and through Allende’s socialist government, the expropriation of more than 4,400 properties was achieved, not considering the more than 2,000 seizures made by agricultural workers. Despite achieving a better equipment for hospitals, an improved program of foods distribution and an impulse in the preschool, basic and industrial education (as well as providing access for universities), the social spending provoked un growing deficit in the fiscal resources that the government tried to solve through fiscal monetary issuance. This generated an inflationary process that was aggravated by severe provision problems, hoarding and business sabotage. Added to this, the government had to face the “virulent” opposition of the National Party that was later joined by the Christian Democracy which, in its beginnings, had supported the election of Allende and his government program.

The Christian Democracy Party was a fundamental player in the Chilean political system from 1957 to 2004, obtaining a large electoral support that allowed three of its militants become presidents. It faced an extraordinary political elevation, beginning with less than 10% of the total votes prior to 1960 and reaching 43.6% in the parliamentary elections of 1965.

And so, the context is 1973. The last Chilean parliamentary elections are being celebrated, which resulted in a victory for the Confederation of Democracy, an opposition alliance led by the National Party and the Christian Democratic Party, during the government of the to-be-overthrown president Salvador Allende. Despite that many Chileans are voting against the “Communist threat”, Allende’s Party gains the 36.8% of the votes, which leads the opposition to the sociopolitical conclusion that the legal systems are futile. As a consequence, the bourgeoisie and the Chilean military develop a strategy to defeat the threat, and this strategy involves provoking a coup d'état in the country.

The unexpected electoral result obtained by the Popular Unity consolidated the coup option in some sectors of the opposition. Although this option was thwarted on June 29th, 1973 (in the failed coup d'état attempt known as “El Tanquetazo”), it was clear for Salvador Allende that only an overwhelming popular support would make his government viable. His idea of calling for a plebiscite, however, never came to fruition, since he was dethroned on September 11th through a coup d'état which military forces were led by general Augusto Pinochet, putting an end to the Popular Unity.

The ending contains highly sensitive content, but for those that jokingly state that the cameraman never dies, the testament immortalizes the stock footage legacy of Argentinian photojournalist Leonardo Henrichsen.

Part II: The coup d'état

Taking place between March and September of 1973, the opponents from the left and the right fight each other on the streets, in the workplaces, in the factories, in the courts and even in the Parliament. Salvador Allende attempts to settle an agreement with the forces of the political center, the Christian Democracy, but to no avail. In Valparaíso, the military prepare and plan the coup d'état supported by a broad sector of the middle class, creating a civil war climate in the country. Days before the coup d'état, 1,000,000 supporters bid their last farewell to the dethroned president Salvador Allende.

The ending of this second part is one of the most terrifying and frightening instants in the history of documentaries. Once that Augusto Pinochet has fully seized presidential power and his title as the supreme ruler, Patricio Guzmán shows us a very brief and equally disturbing vision of the new establishments of his government, including concentration camps in national territory, which would constitute a very humble foreshadowing of the military dictatorship that would oppress the nation for the next 17 years. Pinochet was the leader of the Military Junta from 1973 to 1981, also known as the Government Junta of Chile.

This image of inwards self-destruction retroactively takes us to the foreshadowing opening of the first part, when the La Moneda Palace (the president’s seat and the headquarters for the General Secretariat of the Presidency and the General Secretariat of the Government), was bombed by the Air Force, an image infinite times more powerful than the landmark opening of Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), because it is not the symbol of a racist and genocidal symbol being destroyed, but the architectonic foundations of the sociopolitical stability in the country.

Part III: Popular Power

Living under the shadow of the previous two installments, which place great focus on the anarchy, uncertainty of political stability and social justice, and the bombardment of the La Moneda Palace, lies this documentary which, unexpectedly for many, is not a direct continuation of Pinochet’s regime and military dictatorship horrors. Rather, remaining loyal to the original focus on the struggle of a nation without weapons, we are taken back to the main protagonists of this national story: the working class.

This is the most special chapter in the sense that it constitutes the most complete and beautiful oath to the voices of the working class, their daily routines and their sociopolitical vision, opinions and hope being emptied into a government that, by the time, was non-transparent and faced the mist of uncertainty. During 1972 and 1973, and completely localized on the sidelines of the great events of the country, the people that support the government of Salvador Allende and the Popular Unity plan, prepare and put their plans into action to demonstrate the popular power, as is the case of community warehouses, the ”Cordón Industrial” (industrial belts) and rural committees, among others, with the intention of either stopping or neutralizing the economic crisis and the chaos that engulfs the country.

Throughout, they are interviewed on their views about the insurrection of the bourgeoisie and respond with a strike of the employers and middle-class employees by occupying factories and, as the strike is prolonged, creating the aforementioned “industrial belts”, which are self-managed worker counsels. This opens up a debate on the left about the future of socialism and worker’s power in Chile.

Conclusion

The documentary cinematic form has a huge advantage over fictionalization, no matter how much comprehensive the artistic control might be over the latter: it’s real. The opening scene did not only become a worldwide icon of barbarism, but the most tragic possible outcome for a man in power: suicide. Sallende died by committing suicide once the military troops entered the Palace of the presidential seat. Guzmán utilizes this historical event to establish the nature of what the masses can provoke in a nation without arms or means of establishing order through political and ideological fundamentalism.

We have learned nothing. The people of Israel rejected Samuel, the last Judge of Israel established by God, as their ruler, and demanded a king “as all other nations had”. Samuel mourned this mass sentiment, but the opening quote used in this review was God’s response to Samuel, and it was not God, but the people, that chose Saul as their king, a true monster. Chile, as a disorganized population, got their own Saul, Pinochet, in return, and had to pay the prize of its decisions and internal division for two decades.

100/100

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The Battle of Chile: Part II, 1976 - ★★★★★

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 11:43:51 +1300

A TRILOGY REVIEW

“Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”
-1 Samuel 8: 7-9

Part I: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie

Part II: The coup d'état

Part III: Popular Power

Conclusion

100/100

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The Battle of Chile: Part I, 1975 - ★★★★★

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 04:06:02 +1300

A TRILOGY REVIEW

“Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.”
-1 Samuel 8: 7-9

Part I: The Insurrection of the Bourgeoisie

Part II: The coup d'état

Part III: Popular Power

Conclusion

100/100

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Irma Vep, 1996 - ★★★★

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 13:34:36 +1300

*Twitch Redeem by 🍟McMaggie Cheung.*

Assayas as an expert director of a metafilm opera out of control, full of real-life industry intricacies, ironies on-set, and giving Maggie Cheung a completely different role for the sake of variety, and she truly shines like the sun, both in soundless and colorful form! Openly borrowing influence from Fassbinder’s Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) and Truffaut’s La Nuit Américaine (1973), Irma Vep goes beyond being a tribute to the inconvenient eccentricities of filmmaking and a homage to the serialized epic Les Vampires (1915): it’s a speculatory essay on an alternate what-if, where Maggie Cheung is an alternate version of the real-life Maggie Cheung, where the real-life Léaud is renowned and discussed as belonging exclusively to “intellectuals”, and the fictional Léaud is a brute director named René Vidal in the crisis of a nervous breakdown while having his own reasons for remaking Les Vampires with a Hong Kong action star as the protagonist after watching footage of currently my favorite superhero film of all times, The Heroic Trio (1993).

While it is openly debatable that this might mean more to those attached to the Nouvelle Vague, the process of filmmaking, Hong Kong cinema and/or queen Maggie Cheung herself, does a film having a niche or a target audience is a fault? How many don’t? Enjoyable hypothesis, darkly comedic to the core concerning the foreigner experience and the dark side of the film industry, with a spectacular finale.

85/100

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Challengers, 2024 - ★★½

Thu, 9 Jan 2025 06:35:17 +1300

Zendaya the expressionless is looking for roles that require more than a facial versatility on the level of Steven Seagal and I respect that. Guadagnino, we get it: tennis as a metaphor of the playground of life with all risks involved, the match point as the decisive turning point in an era of our lives, and how easily men can be manipulated by an evil heartless and emotionless maniac that doesn’t know how to love or be loved when they are governed by their genitals instead of their neurons. Let's settle that as a "reasonable" justification for a sexualized ménage à trois (I wonder what Bertolucci, Truffaut, Malle and even Cuarón would think about the screenplay structure and character depth of this) like if they didn't know any better. The solution is to escape the ones that have taken advantage over our emotional dependencies, and the sudden realization of who wins the match becomes increasingly trivial.

Deep film! Sure...

I must utterly condemn the lack of emotional buildup and imposed alienation on the audience from the characters. How can I convey emotion? Show Zendaya like any MCU fan always dreamed of (almost), create “sexual tension” which explodes into uncalled “bisexual” homoeroticism that ends up adding absolutely nothing to the characters at hand (except for a foreshadowing that disguises its cleverness as excitement for horny theater attendees), and fool audiences into thinking the scene carries some sort of importance by overusing Trent Reznor in practically all emotional scenes: melancholic, tragic, sad, ironic, plot twists, treason, manipulation, romantic, close-ups for the sake of “style”... use the same darn kind of music in all of them! That act is the equivalent of putting your favorite condiment, let's say pepper, on every dish you consume, even cereal. This will transform trivial scenes into interesting vignettes in people’s minds! Voilà, problem solved. Luca, the "mastermind" of deception.

My, oh my, just please step out of the game of reiteration! In a story like this, your fortitude should be the arcs of the characters and the obvious visual style of filmmaking should be an enhancement, for God’s sakes. The ending is too Deus-Ex Machina for my liking, especially the revelations given during the match, like people could forgive soul-crushing revelations of that magnitude that easily. Of course, though the power of ""friendship"" and a scream of "COME ONNN!" will ramp up the low stakes. It’s the proper solution for everyone on paper, but the running time seems like it was getting too grand considering the number of slow-motion stamps plagued by electronic music that made it longer and the closure was over time.

A perfect example of covering up lack of talent with bombastic, shrill loud noise.

53/100

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Revolution and Land, 2019 - ★★★★

Wed, 8 Jan 2025 19:15:15 +1300

¡Saludos a todos mis hermanos del gran Perú!

Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado (1910-1977) was a Peruvian military and politician, and the chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. Under this role, he leaded and executed the 1968 Coup d'État which overthrew the president Fernando Belaúnde Terry, who has been chosen democratically. The main argument was the exploitation of the oil industrial complex "La Brea y Pariñas" by the Internaional Petroleum Company (IPC), a subsidiary of Standard Oil New Jersey, which refused to pay the real amount of taxes due to oil explotation within Peruvian laws. After the strike, the Marine and the Air Force were annexed to the top leadership of the country. Velasco gained absolute power until 1975 during the so-called Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces (Gobierno Revolucionario de la Fuerza Armada), becoming a military dictatorship, although he openly declared his government as socialist and anti-imperialist.

The collection of changes and reforms he made in the country were named "Peruvian Revolution" by Velasco himself, including the expropriation of the IPC refinery and the notorious Agrarian Reform of 1969. The latter sought, in theory, an equitable distribution of the land, rational water distribution and the elevation of the dignity of peasants and farmers. It was until 1973 where a national oil crisis ocurred, which snowballed into an economic crisis that culminated in the "Limazo" or "Febrerazo", a police strike and coup attempt violently repressed by the armed forces on February 5th of that 1975, year when Velasco seized power, two years before his death.

The title of the documentary seems to imply that the concepts of "revolution" and "land" are not mutually dependent, but are essential changes a country must overgo for achieving true development, and so, through interviews of many protagonists of the agrarian reform, as well as historians, we take a very modest look at the background, development and consequences of it that still have an impact today. Juxtaposed, the documentary incorporates how Peruvian cinema explicitly evolved both socially and technologically to reflect the concerns of the country, focusing on the plights of the working class during the 60s and 70s, and thus adding a gargantuan amount of films to my watchlist, from Luis Pardo (1927) to Wiñaypacha (2018), the latter being Aymara language film, language spoken by the inhabitants of the Bolivian Andes.

While the storytelling arrangement shows a convoluted structure of ideas at times, which is a crucial element not to be taken lightly in the development of a documentary, the chronology presented throughout shows a century-long transformation of one face of Peru, and saves a gritting closure for last, as a never-ending struggle, which is the common symptom for every Latin American nation I know: the burning soul of revolution, social reform, political transparency and a transparent distribution of resources. It's never been a problem of scarcity, but one of governmental corruption and opportunistic interest.

This is an invitation for all Latin Americans to bring awareness about a nation and to strengthen our mutual support and brotherhood.

¡Firme y feliz por la unión!

81/100

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The Muppet Movie, 1979 - ★★★★

Wed, 8 Jan 2025 12:01:16 +1300

*Twitch Redeem by Jaime Rebanal.*

I’ll make this review unconventionally. The film has three genius sequences to open the show considering the fantastical poppet nature of the whole premise interacting in real life and the self-aware act of this being a film about them, the Muppets, the ones and only. First, we have a meta moment where they attend a theater and a single tracking shot presents all the attendees, seat by seat, interacting in a hilarious and disastrous fashion (in the good way). After that, we are introduced with a humble sample of the cinematography that will be present throughout, beginning in the sky and descending all the way into the swamp where Kermit lives and sings the straight up memorable song “The Rainbow Connection” which, unsurprisingly, received an Academy Award nomination. Immediately after a questionable Hollywood agent presents him an opportunity in Hollywood and Kermit decides to take it, we see him freaking pedaling across the screen in a sheer display of Muppet technology magic that I can’t still explain, since it’s clearly a practical effect. This moment in particular had everyone jaw-dropped, with little kids back in the time asking their parents: “If they are puppets, how come Kermit is riding a bicycle or pedaling? Who’s controlling him? I told you they are real!”

This is where I have to directly quote Roger Ebert once again, shamefully, like I did in Kung Fu Hustle (2004):

“[…] if you can figure out how they were able to show Kermit pedaling across the screen, then you are less a romantic than I am: I prefer to believe he did it himself.”

Immensely enjoyable adventure / road film with excellent humor for all ages, including the more cinematically versed, and with more legendary cameos than I can count, especially the last one. However, I must definitely highlight James Coburn, Bob Hope, Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks and Orson Welles. Composer Paul Williams and director James Frawley also deserve a mention. I miss adventures made with a dedicated spirit like this one.

82/100

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My Darling Clementine, 1946 - ★★★★

Wed, 8 Jan 2025 03:58:31 +1300

Ford tackles the historical legacy of the Earp lawmen in Tombstone Arizona, pairing Henry Fonda against Victor Mature, Linda Darnell against Cathy, with stunning landscapes of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, featuring a historically incorrect grave of James Earp (seemingly mixing up his information with Morgan Earp’s 1882 murder), and with Ford upping his game in the “American” western genre while being an absolute idiot on set in real life. Yes, all the ingredients are here. The noirish construction of it all certainly give it a more somber tone of anarchy, highlighting the struggle of good and evil with chiaroscuros, and the stoicism of Fonda impersonating a peculiar character like Wyatt Earp wasn’t an obstacle at all for him to stop being considered as the ideal hero in all situations, even those that require violence for stopping brutes that have cross the line of no return concerning dehumanization and the lack of remorse in their actions: it’s fire against fire.

Also, no one knows how to say properly “sombrero” in this film, which further accentuates that this is indeed a very U.S.ian film. Recommended classic!

84/100

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All of Us Strangers, 2023 - ★★★½

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 13:55:30 +1300

***The ElCochran90 Discord Server's Watch Party Redeem #120***
**Recommended by Jaime Rebanal.**
*Find full updated list here*.

After Obayashi’s The Discarnates (1988), this was the second stop intended: a modern readaptation by an openly gay filmmaker, set in modern times and retaining key aspects of the original novel.

While I was watching this with my film buds, there was a moment in which I commented: “When I was a little kid, one of my favorite things to do during vacations and weekends was to wake up before my parents, storm into their room, lie exactly between both and cover myself beneath the sheets. It was my safe spot, and I felt nothing would ever happen to me.” This comment was followed by quite a big chain of “me too” from them, all in unison (or “unitext”?).

There is a particularly empathetic perspective that Haigh presents here, and that is that our parents will always be parents. I have seen hundreds of people of my generation (I say “hundreds” based on my experience as a University professor for over 6 years) that tried, and still actively try, to stay away from their parents as much as possible, since this rupture equals “life independence” and “freedom” for finally making their own decisions. This illusion is quite perpetuated in the minds of Mexican youth, and so has been the symptom for years. However, the few fatherless ones, be it the father or the mother, wish they at least could have known what having parents is, or at least, speak to the one that passed away one more time.

The entirety of Ecclesiastes 12 suddenly hits harder, but the opening presents the main lesson clear enough:

“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”—“
-Ecclesiastes 12:1

...In other words, treasure what you have today, and remember who has given you life, before a life of ungratefulness leads to days where we can only say: “I am not happy anymore”.

There is another important angle that Haigh presents here which I consider of crucial importance within any family structure which differs significantly from the first film, and that is the act of coming out as queer as a son to your parents. I made a vow during two watch parties in my server, this included, and I will also do this here, written and signed, that my children will have my everlasting love and undying support whatever decision they take concerning their identity or orientation. I find this not only to be a Biblical obligation, but also a crucial act of love. The Commandment of Exodus 20: 12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” has no exclusivity clauses. I can find no verse that says “love them as long as they’re hip, cool and love you”. Love is a decision, and an act of giving. The same applies to children, to our own seed. A bisexual friend of mine said “Cochran, that is absolutely based”. My fiancée and future wife is a witness of this commitment.

Turning the page, there are quite some sequences that I perceived as emotional fillers or resources to cause a reaction, such as the graphic sexuality not serving a purpose tied to the main themes of grief and loss, but rather a carnal liberation as a temporary remedy for the pain that is still in us. This is a dangerous idea; Akerman left this pretty clear in the shocking conclusion of Je Tu Il Elle (1974). When Adam is in the presence of his parents, he acquires a kid’s mannerism all over again, from the way he stars to the way he lies on bed and speaks to her father and mother. Thanks to both of them, he was conceived, and now he was conceiving the idea of not letting go. The film is shot gorgeously and a particular subway sequence was convincingly jarring: feeling trapped is a difficult emotional state to put into words, let alone images, and I think this film successfully did that in that particular moment.

Harry, on the other hand, doesn’t do much for me. In Ôbayashi’s film, Kei’s character had a strong significance from beginning to end, and brings a very important catharsis during the final scene. Harry, on the other hand, is presented as someone as lost as Adam, which is a realistic scenario, seeking to heal his wounds, and Haigh decides to randomly throw a debate on how to address gay people, such as “queer sounds more elegant”. It is funny, since during my childhood and early adolescence (1990 – 2003 or 2004), queer in social media available at the time was straight up a derogatory and offensive term, like another word today. Now, it has been embraced not only as acceptable, but elegant as well, and the character of Harry subtly criticizes those that will stick with the “gay” term. It is true, but times change, you know? Many reviews written here over 10 years ago are now bombarded by the snowflake generation showing us “acceptance” and “political correctness” without understanding times change, and that intentions weren’t as racist or so-called “homophobic” as they think they are. Whoever seeks racism and homophobia everywhere is potentially more racist and homophobic than the attacker, who might not be an attacker to begin with. Just look for Roger Ebert’s television movie review for Freddy Got Fingered (2001): do you really think Ebert was making a mass media statement that he supported ableism? Again, times change, and we’re willing to change with them, but don’t come to tell us what we are actually thinking, putting words in our mouths.

Returning to the main point, I simply didn’t care for Harry and the homoeroticism doesn’t seem to have any value as opposed to, say, Stranger by the Lake (2013), which was a deeply personal statement from openly queer director Alain Guiraudie. The role he plays concerning the fantastical reconnection Adam is experiencing with his parents is barely tangential, unlike Kei’s in the first adaptation.

Be it as it may, it’s a good film, a brave one at that when it comes down to parental acceptance and the act coming out, but also retaining the danger of remaining emotionally dependent on a fantasy. It reminded me of two really recent cases that are extremely close to my heart, and they remain in my prayers. The final shot is grandiosely achieved, so hey, time to see Weekend (2011) I guess, which I intentionally skipped during my 2011 marathon since it simply didn’t interest me at the time.

71/100

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The Discarnates, 1988 - ★★★★½

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 09:41:02 +1300

***The ElCochran90 Discord Server's Watch Party Redeem #119***
**Recommended by Jaime Rebanal.**
*Find full updated list here*.

Obligatory watch before All of Us Strangers (2023) just like time itself intended.

The pain and grief of loss is a deeply complex human theme; perhaps that explains the amount of art pieces, cinematic or not, that explore this either partially or fully. Yamada’s novel explores this through a complex human psyche where memories, fantasies and reality collide, but the latter ends up imposing its presence on routine and that is the cathartic moment where one must choose between two paths: live in denial, a road that will send straight to depression, or learn the divine art of retaining the best gifts and life lessons that people in our lives granted us while they shared earthly time with us.

Ôbayashi’s take on Yamada’s novel does exactly this. His childhood-inspired imagination, the one that brought us Hausu (1977) propelled by the imagination of his daughter, fuels the adequate sentimentalism and melancholia of the great dangers of a particular fantasy setting: what if your deceased parents came back to life, only visible to you? Would you see them?

I am, as a matter of fact, asking this: would you go to see them? Would you be able to let go again? You can pose this scenario with any other close person to your life that has already passed away.

Initially, this film made me think: “Yes, the conversations I would have are so vast, inquiring about matters of life after death, things I never knew that I should have known, eradicating all speculations that tormented my mind during my grief period, and...”. The more I thought about this, the more I realized I simply shouldn’t be there. My life would be consumed by anguish and emotional dependence, my curiosity would not let me sleep... Why am I having this feeling that the dead are more valuable than the living? It’s entirely the opposite! Why would I visit my deceased grandmother more frequently than my own father beyond the fact that visiting him right now, as God confirmed it to me personally, represents a danger for the lives of me and my family?

Something is out of is spiritual order.

The life-consumption optic in the story made total sense out of the blue. It is this emotional attachment that have made us create rituals and parties dedicated to the dead, like the Mexican “Día de Muertos”, but is it truly a memorial celebration, or an act of not being able to let go? Certainly, an answer cannot be given as a law for 100% of the families, sons and daughters, widows, parents without children, et al.

While I was watching the film, I pretty much think God was facepalming, and reminded me what He had taught me from decades ago:

“Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
-Luke 9:60

How on Earth could I have forgotten this life principle? The potent emotions at presence made me speculate, but it is the Holy Spirit the ones that reminds me of the things I should focus on: the living, the present, the indivisible particle of time we are experiencing and that is unrepeatable.

The last 10 minutes are pure genius and a brutally friendly reminder of who’s behind the camera; then again, during the closing reflection, it all comes full circle concerning the true answer: let go, since death is a natural part of life; we are eternal beings having a temporary stay in the present flesh; don’t substitute the ones concerned for you for those that cannot think for you anymore since they don’t exist. Otherwise, you might be pretending to live everyday (“everyday” is not hyperbole) with a person that has ceased to live; a memory can acquire a shockingly tangible form, even if not literally.

A particular scene had me in a sea of tears, and you will go through that as well.

90/100

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Convoy, 1978 - ★★★½

Tue, 7 Jan 2025 04:21:29 +1300

Road films of the 70s and late 60s are particularly interesting as a subgenre. It came with many faces, from thrilling suspense to existentialism: Spielberg (more than once), Rafelson, Hopper, Schlesinger, Sarafian, all gave different perspectives on this. We even had a revolutionary Muppets movie! In the case of Peckinpah, he goes political full-throttle.

This surpassed my expectations, which were low to begin with after viewings of The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970) and Junior Bonner (1972); it seemed like only the films the Criterion Collection laserdiscs and DVDs were worth checking out. As volatile in quality as the decade was for the auteur, and especially considering this is the effort that followed the potent Cross of Iron (1977).

In spite of this, what seemed like another shot at a raunchy comedy of lowlife runaways turned into a strong social commentary concerning the opportunist interests of capitalist mass media and political candidates. By the time the line “They are voters” is thrown, I felt my couch made a violent steer towards another direction I didn’t see coming. From there, the road movie embraces its focal point and never lets go, putting the camaraderie of the working class in a pedestal. Interesting! The cinematography is just sweet enough to justify a digitally restored widescreen experience with Kris Kristofferson at his peak of male badassery, and the hilarious comedy is scattered throughout appropriately at least during the second half.

While the film takes its fair share of time to make its point, the wait is most rewarding. Recommended for road movie fans and Peckinpah completionists.

70/100

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Junior Bonner, 1972 - ★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 19:21:49 +1300

PG Peckinpah (more PG-13 in my eyes) about Arizona rodeo riders competing in the flesh while suffering in spirit. The feature admirably advocates for family values, union and feminism in an environment of drunkard chauvinism, a valuable addition within the director’s oeuvre, and doesn’t end with a negative note. It is not a Peckinpah feature without the obligated prolonged scene of anarchic violence, this time in a bar, playing more for humor rather than for shocking human conflict. I’d strictly recommend this for completionists; however, the performance by veteran actress Ida Lupino is worth checking out.

61/100

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Daddy Longlegs, 2009 - ★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 15:04:26 +1300

The epitome of the parental modal dilemma and life irresponsibility seen through intimate and minimalistic eyes. You reap what you sow, so the story is cyclical for my eyes, including the shocking ending, but so are the nightmares, the fears, the confusion, the decision-making mechanisms and everything in between that digs a deeper hole for the grave. Children experiencing an irresponsible adult life through eyes of innocence slowly being convinced of evil ways.

The plot synopsis reads that the father is 34 years old, and I’m currently 34 years old, but it was not possible for me to connect to the age factor since the dude looks like 48, or 51 tops.

83/100

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House, 1977 - ★★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:54:29 +1300

Watched on Sunday October 20, 2024.

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Cabeza de Vaca, 1991 - ★★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:52:55 +1300

Watched on Sunday September 15, 2024.

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The Red and the White, 1967 - ★★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:52:02 +1300

Watched on Sunday July 28, 2024.

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Calamari Union, 1985 - ★★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:51:07 +1300

Watched on Sunday July 7, 2024.

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The Blood of a Poet, 1932 - ★★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:50:51 +1300

Watched on Sunday July 7, 2024.

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Wild at Heart, 1990 - ★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:50:14 +1300

Watched on Sunday May 12, 2024.

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The Matrix, 1999 - ★★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:49:06 +1300

Watched on Saturday April 13, 2024.

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The Lion King, 1994 - ★★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:48:26 +1300

Watched on Wednesday November 20, 2024.

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Mulan, 1998 - ★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:46:23 +1300

Watched on Tuesday October 29, 2024.

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Tarzan, 1999 - ★★★½

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:45:52 +1300

Watched on Monday October 28, 2024.

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Kung Fu Hustle, 2004 - ★★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:33:34 +1300

Watched on Friday June 28, 2024.

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Reservoir Dogs, 1992 - ★★★★½

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:30:50 +1300

Watched on Thursday September 5, 2024.

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Presumed Innocent, 1990 - ★★★★

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:28:49 +1300

Watched on Sunday October 20, 2024.

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Tabataba, 1988 - ★★★★½

Sun, 5 Jan 2025 12:21:49 +1300

Probably Madagascar’s potent and most powerful anticolonialism statement seen through the eyes of the Malagasy Uprising of 1947, a nationalist struggle that concluded in 1949 that sought for independence, which would come until 1960. The Malagasy term “tabataba” means “troubles” or “noise”, but has become a common euphemism to refer to the aforementioned armed conflict. Malagasy filmmaker Raymond Rajaonarivelo portrays untouched nature with impressionist eyes, and the conflict through the perspective of childhood innocence rapidly acquiring an insurrectionist mentality where human lives are variables in an equation that will result in a greater outcome: independence and human freedom. Visuals are stunning, contemplative poetry and successfully achieves a contrast when two cultures clash for colonialist interests, perpetuating the fact of white supremacy in history, and also that of God’s natural creation vs. corpses piling under clouds of bombs and gunpowder, and rivers of tears.

91/100

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Salt of the Earth, 1954 - ★★★★½

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 06:43:21 +1300

***The ElCochran90 Discord Server 's Watch Party Redeem #118***
**Recommended by QuantumGate.**
*Find full updated list here*.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
-Matthew 5:13

This is an absolute landmark in the history of film, with no hyperbole in such statement. Obscured by the neocolonialist blacklisting of the United States of Amerikkka, Salt of the Earth constitutes one of the first independent films made by the U.S. outside of the Hays Code and the imposed imperialism and stereotypes of the Mexican culture perpetuated by the Western cinematic genre and fueled by mass media. Moreover, it portrays an egalitarianist revolutionary stance firm as a rock with a female protagonist that showcases from head to toes what feminism truly stands for: asking for equal opportunities, demanding just working conditions, loving and respecting her husband, standing against chauvinism, defending her physical and emotional dignity, and never looking down on me. She’s a loving mother, a supportive wife and the key her husband needs to be a focused human being. Men and women are shown complimentary marriage-wise and fighting for social causes and domestic dilemmas, exactly how God intended, and exactly like it works... The only way it works, as a matter of all facts.

For an independent film, the scale is massive, it embraces its universalism deeply and never shies away from portraying the systematic racism and Savage Capitalism of the so-called “Americans” (they don’t represent my continent) that they have sustained against Hispanics for centuries and continues to shape and impact everyday family, social and working life.

Rosaura Revueltas’ performance as Esperanza Quintero is currently competing in my mind as one of the best ever showcased in film history, making the great Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), with all due respect, look like an ant. She’s potentially one of the best female characters in cinema, loving mankind, hating their sins and standing for what is right.

Expect graphic content and brutality to fill the screen throughout, as well as social debates that scared the international public image of the U.S. Expect artistic freedom. Expect screams for justice, food, shelter, baby care conditions and women joining a revolutionary cause in the same level of men. For the mind of the United States of Amerikkka, this had to be blacklisted, and of course it was. It was too busy funding many Latin American countries to promote guerrillas, coup d’états and military dictatorships in nations like Guatemala, Chile and Argentina.

It was not only a matter of time, but also justice that this saw the light of day, and it should be shared with any American citizen, especially Mexicans and U.S.ians.

94/100

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The Pleasure of Being Robbed, 2008 - ★★★

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 19:04:24 +1300

Eleonore Hendricks is adorable and I’ll die on that grave; it’s great that she’s the recurrent casting scout of the Safdies, but bros, please make her appear in front of the screen again.

Safdie’s minimalism works on so many intimate levels it even feels rewarding in spite of the underdevelopment of the main character considering such an improvisatory and anecdotal structure. It flows more freely than Frances Ha (2012) and without the cringe curse of mumblecore. I simply wish I could spend at least 20 more minutes with her and her misadventures, and a screenplay more focused on how her interactions shape other lives, willingly or unwillingly, marginally or drastically. This is what makes Daddy Longlegs (2009) shine so strongly, and Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) quite irresistible.

For independent cinema students, this is a must.

62/100

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The Whale, 2022 - ★★★

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 11:48:20 +1300

I don’t necessarily agree with the focus and problem here being miserabilism. At the end of the day, it’s the portrayal of a man under extreme health conditions harvesting everything he seeded. My main concern is that with no proper background, prior information or insight into the lives that were affected by Charlie’s decisions, we are manipulated into believing that Charlie is a completely transformed and benign soul and everyone is unfair against him with for no justifiable reasons: the daughter is an insufferable case in her road to addiction, the wife is unreasonable, the atheist nurse is the hero of the story (while being an idiot to a religious person), and said person abandoning the foundations of his faith for a spoiled brat. This is strongly problematic; the villain is the actual hero.

The reason I’m not giving this one star as I would normally react is because we’re indeed watching a capsule of an entirely possible, albeit highly improbable, scenario of life. If I ever were to face my father again in spite of decades of unspeakable family damage, I have to respond with the same love and forgiveness that God gave me and taught me through a new life in Christ. However, this must happen at a proper time: not before, and not once it is too late.

Fraser does the impossible with the material he is given in spite that this play does not translate well into film. Tension is built properly and almost tangible, and his teacher profession is something I deeply connected with as a former teacher myself that never had to go through online teaching once the pandemic stroke. The extreme opposites we can go to, from wishing to live to attempting suicide, are very real: in a scenario where our life hangs by a thread, we can either gain everything or lose everything, and we want to experience both. PTSD can strike (as it did in my case years ago), and suddenly you gain the “courage” for attempting self-harm attempts that could lead to death and ending in catastrophe that still keep you alive. These matters are real.

Strong mixed emotions with this one, but I’ll take Fraser’s humility to portray this role and toss away the evident toxic atheism that Aronofsky carries, the type that translates into mockery and hatred (and, ergo, the most common one I have stumbled upon), while conceptually remaking the emotional core elements of The Wrestler with cheaper emotional manipulation.

61/100

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Tratado de Invisibilidad, 2024 - ★★★★½

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 06:35:06 +1300

Watched at the National Cinematheque with a live Q&A session with director Luciana Kaplan

Perfect Days (2023) suddenly seems so... inferior...

The gap between reality and fictionalization is sometimes made undiscernible, either intentionally or not, and the last Iranian New Wave is the perfect movement for setting an example: auteurs like Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf and Panahi explored cinema as levels of reality and meta-reality with shocking twists on the exploration of true events from a deeply human perspective. Particularly, the Koker Trilogy took this to the extreme, culminating in a masterful dissertation of the human essence.

Although this topic is tangential to the following reflection, it is also crucial. When I wrote about Wenders’ Perfect Days (2023), I spoke about the conversation I had with my fiancée and my shamefully self-baptized term “phantoms” (a term that I still consider accurate), phantoms of our present life, the people we take for granted that privileged citizens hold denigrating stereotypes against: social workers, trash workers, cleaners of public spaces, private and bathroom cleaners, etc.

When it comes to fictionalization, I don’t have an opposite stance against sugarcoating particular themes for the sake of emotional relief and avoid rejection due to a potential focus on miserabilism, but others do, and such jurisdiction falls on our subjective appreciation. People that criticize my reviews for looking at them through a spiritual lens while giving 5 stars for any LGBTQIA+ film for approving their worldview are hypocrites (and also abundant): segregating the epistemological individual experience from art appreciation is an illusion and a lie, even under the understanding that artistic appraisal does not equal ideological endorsement. The point is that, depending on the judging eyes, particular themes should not be even subject to fictionalization and should belong exclusively to the documentary sphere. That also falls right into the subjective individual jurisdiction.

Tratado de Invisibilidad, which translates to “Treaty of Invisibility”, is a Mexican documentary entirely set in modern times that focuses on the lives of women that clean public spaces throughout Mexico City and the absolute illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional degradation they suffer on an everyday basis by both citizens and, most importantly, the governmental and federal companies ran by dehumanized idiots supported by the so-called “Fourth Transformation” regime, an oppressive and brainwashing government that is deeply connected with drug-trafficking forces, an unsustainable governmental expenditure, abuse and lack of transparency on the accounts of the Public Treasury (because “I have other data”, as the infamous AMLO saying goes), and separating citizens against each other based on fundamentalist and fanatical political opposition, which does not only destroys democracy, but the idea of society itself.

During the live Q&A, Luciana Kaplan explicitly stated that she had an enormous number of obstacles during the making of this documentary, including federal authorities and public guards. However, this work came to the attention of a lawyer who helped her take the case to the National Chamber of Deputies. Many of us in the audience were hesitant and yet curious to ask “the” question, and yet we did:

-“Were there any menaces made against you or backlashes against anyone involved?”

The impossible answer came:

-“No. When this lawyer contacted me to make this a case that found its way up to the Legislative Power, they have been silent for years and no response has been given. The case is still open, but without action. This means they are not denying anything.”

This doesn’t mean that federal / police authorities cannot be involved in homicide or other criminal charges; actually, they are, and no one bats an eye for the benefit of what I will openly now call the 4T = Fourth Turd. To even imply the public idea that AMLO’s extended government under the current presidency of Claudia “The Puppet” Sheinbaum is under federal problems that do not fulfill the Ley Federal del Trabajo (the federal law that rules working conditions in the country, and the second most important national law only below the Constitution) is not good for business... let alone politics.

Several interview methods were used for addressing the testimonies:

-For those who won’t get fired for answering an interview, they were made the protagonists of the documentary
-For those who would get fired, Kaplan reshot their answers with actresses and changed their names, without modifying their testimonies
-For those who were physically and/or emotionally abused by their patrons, including rape, complete anonymity was maintained in case they decided to, and the testimonials were narrated

The documentary starts from what the director called live “the first circle of hell” and finishes in “the last circle of hell”: the public transportation (metro) system of Mexico City. Entirely shot in black-and-white, we see a city full of life through the eyes of these women: struggling with all their strength in case they haven’t been deprived of all dignity or will to live.

However, in spite of the agenda being entirely focused on women, one can extrapolate the same conclusions for men, and an attendee in the film showing said he had worked in “the last circle of hell”, but men were promoted faster and was easier for them to abuse their “inferior” workers as retribution for what they had suffered once. Violence and injustices are cyclical.

Once again, I’m not entirely against the idealistic sugar-coating of Perfect Days, but just like with Slumdog Millionaire (2008), the real Hirayamas and the Jamals scattered across the globe would question the authenticity of the realism of the final outcomes in the aforementioned films.

92/100

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Luto, 2023 - ★★★★

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 19:25:25 +1300

Terrific audiovisual composition and engaging premise. 2024 has been the year for Andrés Arochi Tinajero, who might not ring a bell for anyone as a director, but what about Longlegs (2024)? The cinematographer of the blockbuster horror hit goes back to his Mexican homeland soil (thank God) and debuts with a statement on longing, grief and loss through a tremendous, contemplative visual language. Mimicking the core idea of Reygadas’ Japón (2002), the idea on paper can be read as a road movie, but at a deeper level, it’s a spiritual search for an answer that might not lie in earthly means.

To my eyes, the film is full of demons: pain, loss, grief, suffering, confusion, domestic abuse, witchcraft “cleansings” ... As a collage of the natural landscapes of the north of our country, it is sublime, but it also shows the range of non-biblical fundamentalisms in explicit detail. The fantasy / nightmare sequences are crafted fantastically, and despite lacking a more engaging narrative structure considering how strongly the film depends on its visual landscape, a few grandiloquence / extended sequences to outstay its welcome.

Nevertheless, I wish this was the level of quality Mexican cinema strived to reach with every release instead of every brainless delivery that seeks to conform with Western “blockbuster-isms”, and being closer to Zeus (2016) by Miguel Calderón.

81/100

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Enamorada, 1946 - ★★★★

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 19:29:09 +1300

***The ElCochran90 Discord Server's Watch Party Redeem #117***
**Recommended by Stephanie Castro.**
*Find full updated list here*.

Adela Velarde Pérez (1900-1971) is nationally renowned for her active participation in Her Mexican Revolution after studying medicine since young and deciding to be an activist in the Mexican Association of the White Cross since she was 15 years old. She was the creator of a revolutionary group called “adelitas”, who were women that cured wounded soldiers in the battlefield. Her courage as a revolutionary was not recognized until 5 decades later, in 1962.

A song called “Adelita” was created in 1913 by band leader Luis Reyes for the brigade of the General Domingo Arrieta León who was fighting in Sinaloa; the lyrics were made up by the troop on the spot. Since then, the composition has had over 20 covers in over a Century. One of them was done by Mexican actor and singer Jorge Negrete in 1947, husband of María Félix, one year after the release of this film.

The song called “adelita” can be heard in a bar and is pivotal for understanding Beatriz’s transformative arc for foreign eyes, and even national ones. As irrational as it might be, there was a strong longing of love and a sense of the destruction of family as a social construct during the times of the Mexican Revolution, and the revolutionary cause meant everything for many civilians.

This is an odd plate served by Emilio Fernández: a fantastic tracking shot that engulfs us right away into the revolutionary background to be transferred to melodrama infused with screwball and slapstick comedy, brutally violent drama and even spiritual reflections, all of them within context of the greater landscape at hand. María Félix was a queen of the silver screen and shall remain as a legend, a true symbol of feminism, never denigrating and minimizing men (like many so-called feminists think today feminism stands for), but also defending her position and dignity as a woman that shouldn’t be stepped on, even by the most influential and prepotent brutes. Trust is gained, love is a decision, marriage is not an arranged institution... and so, in one of her crucial roles, Enamorada truly lives up to its name. Great, classic Mexican filmmaking.

84/100

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The Time That Remains, 2009 - ★★★★½

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 11:13:59 +1300

***The ElCochran90 Discord Server's Watch Party Redeem #116***
**Recommended by Jaime Rebanal.**
*Find full updated list here*.

The state of Israel is examined through a multifaceted lens that goes from Tati absurdism to Kobayashi’s humanism, a strong anti-occupation soul burning in fire and yet grabbed by evil clutches of a force greater than you can control. Intentionally farcical at times (the Wes Anderson comparisons are understandable), there is something particularly striking about Suleiman, not only as a filmmaker, but as a human being: this is a cinematic example of the human’s being capacity to stay strong during times of unspeakable tragedy and laugh at the situation, to contain the state of being possessed by tears for all eternity and escaping repression through accepting the human being’s inherently flawed nature. The Palestinian filmmaker has indirectly suggested this before: without a “divine intervention”, a permanent solution will never come, let alone Salvation, something that transcends our tangible essence.

The jokes scattered in this film are of sublime craft; the tank gag had me with my jaw dropped and the visual language remains as solid as it was since the millennium started. However, it’ also a complete historical essay from the scope of a single family growing in occupied territory with unsubtle blows to the propaganda brainwash education that is taught at kids since school. We are an absurd, opportunistic and self-predating species, but amidst the most intoxicating war smoke and even chemical gases, God still gave us a capacity to retain a will to live until the end. Making fun of tragedies that are not your fault is one way, a way for a very peculiar kind of strong survivors, of champions of life...

88/100

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Divine Intervention, 2002 - ★★★★★

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 13:12:34 +1300

"Frontiers are an invention of men. Nature doesn't give a hoot."
-Lieutenant Rosenthal, La Grande Illusion (1937)

Mohammed Abdel Wahab's opening piece is the core of the statement: love knows no boundaries, but imposed boundaries are the seed that gives birth to a tree of destruction. “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall.” (Luke 11:17). These words were told to Israel 2,000 years ago by Jesus Christ Himself, and yet the population persecuted by the Holocaust have paid fire with fire. Even if this is a fulfillment of a biblical prophecy, Christianly and morally that does not mean it is something that must happen categorically. Not all prophecies declared by God came to fruition in history; some were reverted due to repentance. Spiritual growth and transcendental love is the whole point.

Suleiman is born from occupied soil as a "divine" fusion between the visual language of comedy by Tati, the dry and expressionles characters of Kaurismäki, and the humanity and landscapes of Kiarostami. However, what if we add some Dragon Ball elements to the formula? The result is incomparable, a chaotic concoction that finds its genuine laughs despite being at gun point (and this will effectively evolve within Suleiman's vision). Spectacular revelation, passionate about cinematic language since it has a deep understanding of it.

96/100

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Moana 2, 2024 - ★★★

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 04:56:32 +1300

My expectations were below zero after my disappointment began increasing when watching the rating distributions across platforms after two weeks of release, but the fact is, I still cheer for this Polynesian warrior. Somehow, the storytelling structure screams "I was supposed to be a TV series" during the first half, but it acquires a stronger form once the formal adventure begins. While some musical numbers and the side characters are highly questionable, the younger sister is adorable and should play a more relevant role in the future, and Moana's parental dynamics are great: it's so refreshing to see a traditional family in a Disney film after so much woke trash from the mouse CEO. The imagination of how the Polynesian landscapes mutate to fantasy creatures is creative, and the overall center of the mission is one I deeply root for.

No shame in admitting this is enjoyable, even if significantly inferior to the original, from the imagery to the soundtrack. As long as the essence of the main characters is not lost like Disney loves to do (remember what happened to Hulk and Thor in the last Avengers deliveries?), I will welcome a third entry without a death faith.

58/100

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Diary of a Lost Girl, 1929 - ★★★★★

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 20:22:54 +1300

113-minutes restored version

"A little more love and no-one would be lost in this world!"

The former citation is the John 3:16 of Pabst's other masterpiece and collaboration with queen and legend Louise Brooks. Subject to heavy censorship throughout the last century even down to 73 minutes, Diary of a Lost Girl is a best-in-class melodrama heavy in theatricality and grandiose in taboo and extremely delicate subjects, from religious fanaticism to rape and suicide, also containing explicit nudity in photographs (Daphnis and Chloe [1931] still remains as the first feature film to contain filmed nudity); however, I have already achieved to make a great sensationalist disservice to the film for selling it. Still, I don't know how to modify it or express myself differently.

This has me at a loss of words; an immeasurably bold storytelling poem about an innocent flower blossoming in a world of pure male evil, filmed to perfection and outacted by Brooks and the unsubtle Frankenstein-monster-like giant reformatory assistant. Freedom for women has been a struggle for the ages and G.W. Pabst captures this gender tragedy in a way that compels the viewer to resort to reflection regarding the behavioral and thought patterns and stereotypes we've inherited from a chauvinistic history, from women dehumanization to strict objectification. Varda made a fantastic short audiovisual essay of this in 1975 and I will never apologize for stating this (especially for the monsters that commented in my thread).

To be torn between this and Pandora's Box (1929) is a most reasonable outcome; nevertheless, modernity screams not only for an informal double feature of both, but for a back-to-back analysis of the social changes in the last 100 years at the least.

In my controversial opinion (why is this not a surprise anymore?), there's been a complete reversal, where white people are now discriminated by their inherited "white priviledge" and where everything is unfairly and oppressively catalogued as gay/lesbian by a community that was and continues to be oppressed for so much time and they are finally being able to say something with less fear of... trafic repercussions or collateral damages (as an example, simply consult the top reviews of highly popular films in this site). It's a complete reversal, and also a form of unfair imposition, but we can hope for an equilibrium to be reached. The portion of the population that perceives Fargeat's Revenge (2017) or Chytilová's Daisies (1966) as feminist films (my two top-of-mind examples at this precise moment) are cause of that harm.

98/100

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Millennium Mambo, 2001 - ★★★★

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 09:43:05 +1300

*Twitch Redeem by Jaime Rebanal.*

Neon-infested regrets; Hsiao-Hsien embraces the new millennium with post-modernist perdition melancholy, existentialist mourning and the illusory “self-sustaining” idiocy of the early millennial generation, the ones that are currently either monstrous parents or lone alcoholic losers, taking the easiest paths for perdition and oblivion, abandoning families, and solving their problems in the way they knew best: running away. Ask any demographic why the percentage of families without the presence of the father surpassed the 33% benchmark exactly in the same life-span, with only the U.S. surpassing the 25% mark. Shu Qi is an acting revelation before she went into The Transporter (2003) nonsense; however, the lingering minimalism of it all is entrancing and creates a Taipei impossible to escape from as long as the individual refuses to break the mold and find a new life from scratch.

That is why this feature accomplishes the feat of making the otherworldly feel so close to home...

85/100

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Laura Hasn't Slept, 2020 - ★★½

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 03:25:09 +1300

Good first half that quickly goes from atmospherically and suspenseful to artificially gimmicky, culminating in a massive jump scare that comes as the most unwelcome of it all. If the feature is like this, I can see myself even liking it less. The second act in particular seems to be done by a different individual that was screaming at the top of the lungs: “But we must retain the Hollywood mediocrity that would make studios greenlit our potential full feature!” Geese...

53/100

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Heck, 2020 - ★★★★½

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 19:23:58 +1300

Souls in motion possessed by sleep-paralysis demons stuck in a permanent purgatory of emptiness, tortured for all eternity; every abstract and non-relative point of view here from the child’s perspective is the complete embodiment of the vivid and horrifying imagination of the earliest stages of life when darkness swallows a house, the safest territory of us all. Terrifying my soul is a particularly hard task, but Kyle Edward Ball surpasses any personal standard of mine, finding a new experimental branch that recreates the look and feel of a nightmare, especially those that do not make sense to the conscious mind when it wakes up. Shadows engulf light, the TV is the only sign of life left, stares become phantasmagorical and even the film granularity activates the imagination of the mind, creating even new horrors.

Unspeakable genius.

90/100

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Revenge, 2017 - ★★★

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 13:43:32 +1300

Fargeat’s exercise that propelled her to international awareness creates her own contemporary “Mad Maxxxine”, if I’m allowed to say a horrible pun, the birth of a contemporary “Furiosa”. The true message, however, is that no matter how stupid and “easy” the female protagonist is in the first half, that doesn’t justify violence against women of any kind, from physical to psychological. The screenplay shows painful signs of mediocrity throughout, nonstop, but Fargeat’s confidence in style to create an angel of vengeance (and her capacity to make the prep crew run out of fake blood several times) is what carries value here since rebirth symbology (both Christian and mythological) abound. Feriocious neo-western with a feminine flavor: it’s rare to get a dish this enjoyable nowadays.

66/100

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The Substance, 2024 - ★★★★½

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 04:02:12 +1300

Chaotic strambotism and exuberantly bombastic, a crumbling edifice built on foundations of plastic, electronic music and dead shrimp. The cocoon of superficial frustrations finds its rebirth as an empty vessel with chemicals instead of blood, and yet with the unified conscience of the true, original self. The narrative is shockingly straightforward and, with all unintended puns or not, style self-consciously prevails over the substance. However, in the hundreds of gallons of goo and blood, the epileptic sequences and the Stephen King nods with a very obvious Lynch homage carry a strong commentary regarding self-acceptance while punching the male-dominated fashion industry in the face to the point of oblivion... decapitation I would say. I have absolutely zero issues when the substance prevails over the style as long as the audiovisual language is self-sustaining; if Raffertie pumps the music up to 11, Fargeat supervises a fantastic editing team and the sound effects comedically maximize the absurdity of a statement superior to Refn’s while Benjamin Kračun provides perhaps the best cinematography of the decade, subtletly will not be required at all, and all Carpenter and De Palma fans will be surprised, if they managed to avoid throwing up their entrails to death.

94/100

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Alambrista!, 1977 - ★★★★½

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 19:10:40 +1300

***The ElCochran90 Discord Server 's Watch Party Redeem #115***
**Recommended by QuantumGate.**
*Find full updated list here*.

Claudia Sheinbaum has been elected in Mexico, a power that has been in charge of dividing the populace through corruption and an illusory “4th Transformation”; Donald Trump has just been elected and has recently declared that bombing Mexican soil to attack the cartels problem is a plan that is currently being supported by Republicans. The man wants to have his own civil war.

This film came at a crucial point in North American history (friendly reminder that Mexico is in America, and also from North America along with Canada). It also reached me at a very important point in my life concerning my concerns for the geopolitical situation and the national fear that has been exacerbated these last months.

High-impact, socially accurate and utterly realistic depiction of the undocumented immigrant experience and the systemic abuse by the so-called “American” U.S. authorities filmed experimentally and yet very intimately so. I’m enraged by how little the circumstances have changed during the last 5 decades, the tragedies that arguably the most law-abiding citizens have to go through, and how much they signify to the U.S. economy. Take the most recent study of 2022:

-For a full-year figure, undocumented immigrants paid approximately $76,000,000,000 USD in taxes, out of which 47 billion are federal taxes
-Their combined expenditure power surpasses $254,000,000,000 USD.
-Their labor force covers several social and food industries, from agriculture and clothing to hospitality and healthcare
-A mass deportation is expected to impact the economy in two main ways: a loss between 4.2%-6.8% of annual GDP, and a 63% reduction in household income for 8.5 million U.S. citizens with undocumented family members

When you consider that 90% of the undocumented immigrants are of working age compared to the 61.3% of the U.S. population, hence rendering their participation in the labor force more significant, and yet the government insists on spending millions of dollars on annual arrests, speaks objectively about racism and a religious attachment to their precious constitution.

I would dare to call this film an almost mandatory prerequisite for Gregory Nava’s El Norte (1983) for keeping a chronologically correct observation of the gravest border situations concerning immigrants, but it doesn’t only tackle the abuse of the U.S. authorities, but the strong decisions they are willing to take, sometimes against their families in their motherland, in order to obtain a Green Card. In this sense, the protagonist’s arc becomes extremely significant and poses a dilemma that is painful to explore, and yet necessary to be put on the table.

The film garnered all of my respect when it decided to be told entirely from the immigrant perspective, rather than from the wall builders. More than 50% of the dialogue is Spanish spoken by natives, and Trinidad Silva (who also starred in El Norte) is once again present here with a screen presence difficult to describe.

Robert M. Young plays with the line between fiction and reality, sometimes filming at natural locations on the spot without the knowledge of the rural population, and some sequences are genuine, unscripted reactions and interactions, enhancing the naturalistic feeling of the film. Camera is versatile and is a visual success. While Nava’s film explores, not inadequately, the immigrant experience from a melodramatic perspective, and develops a full scenario for the unlucky ones that believed in the “American dream” and pursued a job, later facing fatal consequences, this film mostly remains within the dynamics of the international border and becomes intoxicating to the degree of being claustrophobic, at least emotionally.

While it’s difficult to pinpoint which version is the best, both are crucial, and I think that if a film was ever made with the wholistic perspectives, regardless of the length, if it remains deeply authentic, it would most probably receive full marks from me.

87/100

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Mikey and Nicky, 1976 - ★★★★½

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 11:57:57 +1300

***The ElCochran90 Discord Server's Watch Party Redeem #114***
**Recommended by Jaime Rebanal.**
*Find full updated list here*.

Time has been exceedingly harsh with this film; the sole fact that more footage was shot for this film than the entirety of Gone with the Wind (1939) is mindblowing to me, but when one knows that Paramount was responsible for Elaine May’s career as a director to come to a halt is maddening.

The screenplay of this film is unquestionably among the best of the decade along with The Mother and the Whore (1971), Il Conformista (1971) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974); as great as the 70s were, as much as The French Connection (1971) and Mr. Klein (1976) made an impact, the latter in the same year of May’s analysis of a toxic relationship, May’s penning remains the most innovative. The neo-noir drama penetrates the dynamics of a friendship built on foundations of mud, gunpowder and death, fueled by trauma, racism and chauvinism, and moving disharmoniously as souls in pain during nighttime. They are already a living tragedy regardless of the final outcome, subsisting by inertia, reflecting on banalities and mocking life, even when life has already stolen the humanity out of them, and all of these due to the law of the harvest...

Atypical cinema to say the least, tragically concocted, and yet infused with brilliant tones of dark humor.

91/100

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The Interpreter, 2005 - ★★½

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 03:52:42 +1300

Amusing commercial swan song which initially caught my attention due to its correct depiction of what the actual profession of an interpreter is, including its international scope (my mother was blessed with being in Presidential events as an interpreter, along with participating in events of the “highest” political spheres). The fact they got permission by the United Nations to film in their headquarters is a trivia landmark. It is when it nosedives into an assassination plot of the “political intrigue” (aka foreign people are bad) that plagued the 90s when it becomes fast food cinema, with cheap imitations of Hitchcock twists, including the climax. Be it as it may, the Kidman-Penn chemistry as ambivalent viewpoints on life made this tolerable and sufficiently entertaining.

53/100

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It Ends with Us, 2024 - ★

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 13:11:11 +1300

Here's a true anecdote that happened in a Mexican cinema. Source: Trust me, bro. But it happened; I know it firsthand.

I know a female ticket seller from a franchise called Cinepolis that worked in the theater itself for those unable to previously buy the tickets online. A couple (a man and a woman) arrived to the theater, were looking at the choices, and finally were attended by the ticket seller. "Could we have two tickets for It Ends with Us, please?", they asked. The employee responded: "Well... Are you sure?", and they were like, "Uhmm... Yeah? We want to watch a movie?". She said, "well, I don't know about that... I could actually recommend you other films, like Deadpool & Wolverine", while pointing to her back which showed six different movie theater choices for that day. "Don't you wanna watch that?". The man of the couple said: "No, we already told you the film. Is there a problem?"

The employee says, "well, you know, this film has been a huge hit during the last two weeks, and I've been observing the attendees entering and exiting, particularly couples. After two-and-a-half hours, after the movie ends, most of these couples come out shouting at each other; they come out angry, fighting over it. I... am not comfortable selling tickets for a film that is making couples angry against each other. Wouldn't you prefer Deadpool & Wolverine?"

The couple is surprised, but the woman says: "Wow, really? That is really weird, but don't worry; we both want to see it."

150 minutes later, trailers and publicity included, they actually broke up.

--------------------------------------------------

This is one of the cases where I'm absolutely torn between making a passionate dissection of everything that is downright stupid and factually incorrect about the film, and not wasting time at all, or better put, wasting more time than the one this unnecessarily prolonged travesty of a movie with zero knowledge about professional careers and personal relationships already stole from me thanks to the brainless imagination of Colleen Hoover who didn't even know that it takes an average of 15 years of post-high-school studies to become a neurosurgeon, OR, sharing my hatred with this community.

This is extreme Me-Before-You-tier cinematic bastardization.

The following movie is an insult directly targeted against:

-Directors
-Writers
-Book authors
-Actors and actresses
-Storytellers
-Editors
-Flower shop owners
-Flowers
-Parents
-Brothers and sisters
-White people
-Faithful couples
-Unfaithful couples
-Women
-Men
-Neurosurgeons
-Homeless people
-Friendships
-Intimate relationships
-Marriage itself
-Babies
-Domestic violence victims
-Domestic violence perpetrators
-Rape victims
-Clothes
-Chefs and cooking
-Food
-Stairs
-Anyone with a brain

A more detailed book could be made by actual domestic violence victims instead of someone that "based her experience on her parents", but above everything that is just plainly and disgustingly wrong with the film from both a moral and a subjective filmic standpoint, I utterly condemn the following to a much harsher extent:

-The fact that your protagonist has a name that crosses the line between parodic and moronic
-The idea that you can meet someone at a balcony like that after tresspassing
-The fact that she stayed with him after the first sight she had of him was him in an explosion of rage and kicking a chair
-The fact that the first kiss happens after 7 minutes because she felt alone, with him taking advantage
-The fact that she decided to kiss him after knowing from him that his disgusting words worked every time with every woman, and that he has screwed any woman he has wanted before (what the hell is wrong with this world? Women, elevate your standards, please!!)
-The fact that she entered into a physical and emotional relationship considering all previous points
-The idea that the romanticization and sugarcoating of actual domestic violence is OK for reaching a broader audience
-The inclination for the plot to convince you that she was right the entire time, or even worse, that she did the right thing at the end (going for another man that was equally abusive as the first one, and you have the restaurant scene as proof)
-The idea that this unstable and violent male character is beyond any forgiveness, chance or redemption after she was unfaithful to him right in front of his face, while the film doesn't even give him a chance to explore his own past that led him to his violent impulsiveness***
-The romanticization that being undecided between two men because you have daddy issues and being unfaithful will never backfire against you with consequences
-The fact that a key character of abuse, the protagonist's mother, is only explored tangentially and marginally, which is downright diminishing
-The conclusion that the female party was correct when factually both did wrong

***Violence is never justified, and his violent actions are unarguably condemnable, but domestic violence can also be emotional and psychological, in which case the female protagonist (I cannot have enough strength to avoid the cringe of saying her character name) is the perpetrator. As unstable as he was, he was actually trying to change.

-Quoting my mother: "She's the dumbest female character I have ever seen in a movie; this film has also zero idea about how domestic violence should be explored. She doesn't represent me! Also, that monologue at the end she gives to him which is supposed to be the "punchline" of the book and movie is downright false and hypocritical, and even if assuming such monologue was true, a man like him doesn't understand and accepts reality immediately, right on the spot, like a fairytale, let alone with a baby on his hands! She will be pursued and stalked; he won't be able to live alone without her. Was THIS a best seller? I can be one too, then! Also, how come a neurosurgeon was that young in the novel?"

-Quoting my fiancée: "I'm gonna give a hot take, Edgar, but both did wrong. Also, Lily is intolerable and immensely self-centered. I cannot identify with her character as a woman; she doesn't represent me as a woman. This is a female fantasy disguised as pseudo-feminism at the cost of correctly depicting greater issues at hand."

Masterful words by both.

The fact that the book debuted at number 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list during January 2022 and has over 1,000,000,000 of tags on Tik Tok confirms that humanity doesn't deserve to exist anymore (also please remind me of the age demographics of Tik Tok aka the cancer of the Centennial generation).

I was 18 when the first Twilight (2008) film came out. Not all young viewers might remember this, but the internet exploded with the meme: "Still a better love story than Twilight". Well, here it is, a worse love story than Twilight, where the 50 Shades of Gray become the 100 Shades of Sh**.

Can't truly wait for the Rapture to happen.

19/100

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A City of Sadness, 1989 - ★★★★★

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 06:55:59 +1300

PAULI JANHUNEN CALDERÓN & ADAM LEIJON

Capturing the pain of a whole nation through the eyes of a family is an insurmountable achievement that doesn't even make sense in my head, and yet here we are; sensationalism, images of suffering or battlefield carnage are not required where you're prioritizing the human condition over politics or Western standards of "cinematic entertainment". This is peak structuralist cinema and non-linear storytelling, playing with the perception of time in order to emphasize the relevance of a moment being lived today vs. how memory functions as an act of reliving past tragedies, fantasies, unfulfilled dreams and moments of joy.

The director addresses the Kuomintang just like he addresses modernism, childhood and past generations: the core of his works is national identity. Key is this moment of history when Taiwan heard the words of Hirohito marking its end of Japanese colonialism only to be oppressed by mainland influences; now it was a struggle between Nationalism and Communism, with the February 28th incident claiming the lives of approximately 20,000 Taiwanese civilians by the hands of the KMT.

The most delicate treatment of this subject matter brought the claustrophobic Mexican gem Red Dawn (1990) to my mind concerning how the Mexican Movement of 1968 is also heard by a family throughout, leaving everything to the imagination. Perhaps sensationalism isn't required to get the magnitude of a socioeconomic, cultural and political shift across, right?

I consider this one of the most politically important films of the 80s along with Boat People.

97/100

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Twitch Redeems Watchlist

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 14:00:13 +1300

Recommenders are in the Notes section.

Four years ago, I started streaming fangames on Twitch, which are extremely difficult 2D platformers of many genres, many of them circling around the concept of being homages to really difficult past videogames, mostly of the NES and SNES era, but also modern independent platformers like VVVVVV or Super Meat Boy.

As some know, one of the features of Twitch is that you can obtain channel points in many ways (primarily through sticking with the stream), which you can exchange for redeems. One of the redeems consists in making me watch any feature film, documentary or short film of your choice, with different prices depending on the length. As of February 2024, this redeem has temporarily stopped since the viewers were really loyal and constant, and films piled like rabbits.

The redeems will be reactivated for December 31st, 2024, once I finish watching every single redeem done.

Notes to self:

-March goal: 63 titles seen
-April goal: 72 titles seen
-May goal: 81 titles seen
-June goal: 90 titles seen
-July goal: 99 titles seen
-August goal: 108 titles seen
-September goal: 117 titles seen
-October goal: 126 titles seen
-November goal: 135 titles seen
-December goal: 144 titles seen

...plus 137 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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Required Revisitings

Thu, 11 Jan 2018 19:53:34 +1300

Pay little attention to this list; it's just a way to track the films that, up to this point in my life, require a rewatch for a better understanding now that my filmwatching process and appreciation has reached an almost entirely standardized level. I don't want to add these films to my Excel control sheet which has organized statistics about all titles I have seen in my life because it would be a distracting field to add, so I am making this temporary list here.

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Short Films

Mon, 30 Dec 2013 09:01:44 +1300

Also see: My Favorite Short Documentaries

The following list compiles what my favorite short films (both animated and live-action) are, including from the 100/100 to the 96/100 ratings. If you want to see where each section starts, consult the Notes section!

Notes:

- The list is under constant growth. I still have many short films in my queue, since shorts have not been my priority for many years.

...plus 132 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Movies Part II

Thu, 1 Aug 2013 08:55:15 +1200

Be sure to read the description here first!

My Favorite Movies Part I - Top 151
My Favorite Movies Part II (currently watching)
My Favorite Movies Part III
My Favorite Movies Part IV
My Favorite Movies Part V

In short, this list continues the sacred Top 151, that is, the following films received a rating of 99/100. They all are outstanding achievements in cinema that could potentially enter My Top 151 at any time. If you want to know a film's exact ranking, just add 151 to the position number.

Notes:

- The list is under constant growth.
- The higher the position of the film, the closer it got to being included in the Top 151.

Feedback and complaints are welcome.

...plus 126 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Movies Part V

Tue, 22 Mar 2016 11:06:56 +1300

Be sure to read the description here first!

My Favorite Movies Part I - Top 151
My Favorite Movies Part II
My Favorite Movies Part III
My Favorite Movies Part IV
My Favorite Movies Part V (currently watching)

The following films received a rating of 96/100, the lowest rating possible allowed for a 5-star rating.

Notes:

- The list is under constant growth.
- The higher the position of the film, the more I admired it.

Feedback and complaints are welcome.

...plus 175 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Movies Part IV

Sun, 1 Sep 2013 04:41:29 +1200

Be sure to read the description here first!

My Favorite Movies Part I - Top 151
My Favorite Movies Part II
My Favorite Movies Part III
My Favorite Movies Part IV (currently watching)
My Favorite Movies Part V

The following films received a rating of 97/100.

Notes:

- The list is under constant growth.
- The higher the position of the film, the more I admired it.

Feedback and complaints are welcome.

...plus 150 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Movies Part III

Sun, 18 Aug 2013 03:13:02 +1200

Be sure to read the description here first!

My Favorite Movies Part I - Top 151
My Favorite Movies Part II
My Favorite Movies Part III (currently watching)
My Favorite Movies Part IV
My Favorite Movies Part V

This list continues the sacred Top 151 and My Favorite Movies Part II, that is, the following films received a rating of 98/100.

Notes:

- The list is under constant growth.
- The higher the position of the film, the more I admired it.

Feedback and complaints are welcome.

...plus 113 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Movies Part I - Top 151

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 17:00:33 +1200

My Favorite Movies Part I - Top 151 (currently watching)
My Favorite Movies Part II
My Favorite Movies Part III
My Favorite Movies Part IV
My Favorite Movies Part V

I am a sick individual that loves the 10/10 score. 600 films already have that score and the number keeps increasing everyday. To make things even more complicated and kind of ridiculous, those films are in order of preference, and there are levels of such rating. Any film that reaches a score from 96/100 to 100/100 will get a 10.

The difficult part, though, is to get a full 100. That would mean "perfection" (in human terms, of course). Only 151 feature length masterpieces have received that honor.

I present to you the most significant cinematic events that have conquered my soul and senses in my entire life. If you consider 600+ films as an unrealistic amount of favorite films, then you can consider this as my official favorites list. All of the films have been reviewed or commented on this site.

Notes:

-If you are looking forward to meet the other films with 10/10, feel free to visit the other four lists!
-I may be easy on the 5-star rating. My purpose for you, however, is to achieve that almost every single 5-star rating I give is a promise of good quality in case you haven't seen the film, e.g., something you will rate with 4 stars or above. In short, I want my lists to be promises of good to excellent quality filmmaking from your personal perspective.

...plus 141 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Scenes/Moments in Cinema History

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 10:03:20 +1200

READ THE NOTES SECTION. There are SPOILER WARNINGS in the Notes Section if applicable. Films are in chronological order.

We all have one compilation about moments that made us cry, pumped our hearts and senses, blew our minds, shaped our perception about cinema or even about life itself.

The following collection of cinematic moments (no shorts or documentaries included) is another extension of my personality, from the ones that have me moved emotionally, to the ones that fill my system with testosterone and make me want to go out starting an ass-kicking rampage against criminals, rapists and annoying neighbors.

Notes:

-A single film may contain more than one scene.
-The list is incomplete! Any suggestion would definitely help me, and maybe help us all to discover more types of these audiovisual wonders.
Important: Whenever film depicts violence, I normally see style - and therefore art -, or a social/political/thought-provoking statement. Whenever the film glorifies violence and promotes it, I disagree and therefore my score over 100 goes down. I do not approve violence of any kind towards other human beings or living creatures. However, I do believe in the artistic, stylistic or emotional impact that it can have when portrayed through cinema or through any other art form.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
"Caligari!" "Caligari!"
Safety Last!
Hanging from a clock.
Battleship Potemkin
1) The Odessa Steps sequence.
2) The ending: "Brothers!"
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Chariot race.
A Page of Madness
Opening sequence.
Napoleon
Triptych ending.
Limite
The first 10 minutes.
City Lights
Ending.
King Kong
1) King Kong vs. V-Rex
2) It was Beauty Killed the Beast.
Modern Times
Factory scene: fixing the cogwheels.

...plus 117 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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The Crimson Kirby Best Film of 2023 Poll

Fri, 9 Feb 2024 13:09:31 +1300

Dedicated to Seventh_Persona, a great friend, a magnificent mod and event organizer in the server for 2 years, and the founder of this cause.

For celebrating 300 (Sparta! [I'm old on the inside but maybe not on the outside]) members on our server and its 2nd anniversary, the official results of the poll are up!

The Crimson Kirby awards is The ElCochran90 Discord Server's annual poll as a way to "compete" with the Academy Awards and film festivals in general, by making a curated list of the actual best movies of the year.

Considerations and Criteria for the Poll

1) Only verified members of the ElCochran90 Discord server owning a Letterboxd account could participate.
2) The main focus of the list was feature films; however, the participants were given room for documentaries. Short films, TV series and mini-series were excluded.
3) Only 2023 films were considered, but special considerations were made for 2022 films that received a wider distribution until 2023 (examples: Skinamarink, Sisu, Pacifiction, The First Slam Dunk, etc.)
4) No ties for a single position per voter were allowed.
5) A points-based system was used, which assigns more points to the voter's Top 5 favourite films than the rest of the Top 10. The breakdown of the distribution of points per position is the following:
• #6-10 → 1 point
• #4-5 → 2 points
• #3 → 3 points
• #2 → 5 points
• #1 → 7 points

Fun Facts

- The film with the most amount of people voting as their #1 and #2 favorite of the year is Oppenheimer, and the film with the most votes for #3 is Killers of the Flower Moon.
- The highest-placing film on the list in which no one placed as their favourite film is John Wick: Chapter 4 at #8.
- The highest-placing films on the list in which no one put as their second or third favourite films are May December at #5 and Anatomy of a Fall at #8, respectively.
- The highest-ranking non-English language film is The Boy and the Heron at #3.
- The films that earned a placement solely because only one person put the film as their #1 are Skinamarink and Shin Kamen Rider
- The lowest-ranking films in both terms of the scored and proportional totals are About Dry Grasses, Jesus Revolution and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
- In total, there were 62 unique films submitted by participants for the list.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Please find their Letterboxd accounts below:

jaimerebanal; David1033; Thomas Wallman; RuvZ; Takoberu; jdstowell; Green1122 ✝️; WinningStacks; Faysalkadow; McMaggie Cheung; QuantumGate; boden_; LaloRetro; Seventh_Persona; cartonet; YodaFan68; creddragon33; Stephanie_c; Gas_Mask-Freak; ollie_0222; ElCochran90

In my heart, this is the only 2023 list that matters!

Find the list of last year here: The Crimson Kirby Best Film of 2022 Poll

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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Shut Down the Music: The Action Is About to Begin!

Mon, 1 May 2023 18:37:04 +1200

*Description with spoilers in the "Notes" section.*

Few film scores can truly capure the epicness of a battlefield and the high stakes, including the tragedy of the lost ones, or simply how electrifying is an intense action sequence (think of The Lobby Shootout in The Matrix (1999), the brilliant score throughout the action scenes of Mad Max 2, or the Duel of the Fates for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999).

However, we rarely have have notorious cases, particularly in the action, fantasy, sci-fi and horror genres, where the music is even used for building hype until the complete lack of score emphasizes the editing, sound mixing and sound editing to shine in complete glory, dropping jaws and adding a new kind of excitement and intensity.

Remember the Battle of Pelennor Fields where the army makes a second charge against the Oliphants with triumphant, epic music, until it gets immediately shut down when one of these beasts sends a whole battalion flying away like flies? Remember how iconic were the scores of Rami's Spidey films, but then we get a sequence of un-scored, brutal violence where Spider-Man gets the beating of his life (the worst in the series, actually) by The Green Goblin, or how Raimi, again, constructed an unscored horror scene in the hospital with Doc-Ock? No music, just sounds, screams, metal, electricity, screams intensifying and then fading, saws, and whatnot.

This list tries to compile intentional and well-done examples of the power of an unscored action / intense scene where sound becomes the protagonist and, even in a fantasy setting, the punches, stakes and battles have more "realistic" outcomes, so to speak.

SUGGESTIONS ARE OPEN. If I haven't seen a scene, do provide a link and if it's not a spoiler, I'll add watch it for consideration to determine whether it fits the bill or not.

Let the scoreless action begin!

All Quiet on the Western Front
First battle scene (charge assault)
King Kong
King Kong vs. V-Rex.
Alexander Nevsky
The Battle on the Ice between the Republic of Novgorod and the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights.
Scaramouche
Final fencing duel.
Ben-Hur
Chariot race.
Knights of the Teutonic Order
Battle of Grunwald.
Harakiri
Hanshiro Tsugumo's revenge against the feudal lord's house.
The Manchurian Candidate
Marco vs. Chunjin.
The Betrayal
Army of 211.
The Sword of Doom
Final showdown.

...plus 48 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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The Bottom of the Well aka What Has Been Seen Cannot Be Unseen

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 11:26:59 +1200

*Ratings in the Notes Section*

--------------------------------------------

-I've seen monsters and giant spiders with the cheapest stop-motion effects ever... in films of the 2000s!
-I've seen a black guy that controls minds, makes rituals, makes the heads of his victims explode inside a music-recording cabin... and transforms people into zombies with hip-hop music!
-I've seen films that are so bad... that they are worse!
-I've seen people getting possessed and drooling disgusting goo from their mouths... after eating extraterrestrial vegetables contaminated with water from Mars!
-I've seen a giant leprechaun that is blown up in space... and his severed hand floating in space shows to the survivors the middle finger!
-I've seen movies that make Uwe Boll look... like a complete genius!
-I've seen a guy getting bitten by a radioactive snake, Spider-Man style... and his whole arm is transformed in a snake that kills people!
-I've seen the same guy mentioned above mutating into a snake... and breaking his girlfriend's heart because now he is a damn snake!
-I've seen a low-budget horror flick that has women... giving birth to dinosaurs! How the hell did they get inside the women?!
-Of the aforementioned abomination... I've seen the sequels! Boy are they hilarious when drunk!!!
-One of the sequels mentioned above has a T-Rex grabbing a pole... and throwing it to the characters!

That's right. It is the list of the worst movies ever made.

Date Movie?
Epic Movie?
Meet the Spartans?
House of the Dead?

Ha! That's only the beginning.

WARNING: Secondary reactions of watching this list include severe head trauma, and AIDS.

Imaginum
16/100
House of the Dead
16/100
Date Movie
16/100
The Passion of the Christ
15/100
The Stay Awake
15/100
Leprechaun 4: In Space
15/100
Epic Movie
15/100
Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell
15/100
Carnosaur
13/100
Meet the Spartans
13/100

...plus 38 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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The Crimson Kirby Best Film of 2022 Poll

Sun, 12 Feb 2023 13:23:29 +1300

The Crimson Kirby award was The ElCochran90 Discord Server's way of creating a way for us to "compete" with the Academy Awards*, by making curated list of the actual best movies of the year.

Considerations and Criteria for the Poll

1) Only verified members of the ElCochran90 Discord server owning a Letterboxd account could participate.
2) The main focus of the list was feature films; however, the participants were given room for documentaries. Short films, TV series and mini-series were excluded.
3) Only 2022 films were considered, but special considerations were made for 2021 films that received a wider distribution until 2022 (examples: Vortex, Memoria, Black Phone, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, etc.)
4) A points-based system was used, which assigns more points to the voter's Top 5 favourite films than the rest of the Top 10. A simple breakdown of the values are that: #6-10 will all be valued at 1 point each, #4-5 will be worth 2 points each, #3 will be valued at 3 points, #2 at 5 points, and #1 at a whopping 7 points.
5) No ties for a single position per voter were allowed.

Fun Facts

- The films with the most amount of people voting as their favorite film are TÁR and Everything Everywhere All at Once with 4 votes each.
- The highest placing film on the list in which no one placed as their favourite film is Nope at #5.
- The highest placing film on the list in which no one put as their second or third favourite film is The Quiet Girl at #9.
- The highest placing film on the list in which no one placed it in their Top 3 is The Batman at #12.
- The film which has the greatest discrepancy between its proportional total and its scored total is again, Nope, with the proportional total being 78 and it's scored total being 29, resulting in a difference of 49. (Sidenote: If we were using the proportional total, Nope would be #4).
- The highest 2021 film on the list is Vortex at #14.
- The highest ranking non-English language film is Decision to Leave at #4.
- The lowest ranking films in both terms of the scored and proportional totals are Corsage, One Piece Red, She Said and They/Them.
- In total, there were 84 unique films submitted by participants for the list.

Thanks to everyone who participated!

A shoutout to everyone that submitted their responses. Please find their Letterboxd accounts below:

agvsss, Aspergersaurus, BoomLight06, Brandon_Steger, Buzzyboi , CaptND, Catharsis_1125, David1033, harvardAlt, jaimerebanal, JoseMiguelG6, Lespoon boxd.it/2bU11, mattqt, McMaggie Cheung (gorlamiiiiiiiii), Mehram Sharma , Mithil92, movierater33 (Gaetano C), ortune, qionp, ScreechingMoron, Seventh_Persona, SolitaryParade, somepersona, SuzuhRevv, Takoberu, ZevL

*Also, imagine having the Oscars as a standard for film quality.

TÁR
Nominated by:
jaimerebanal
Mehram Sharma
ScreechingMoron
JoseMiguelG6
ortune
Aspergersaurus
somepersona
ZevL
mattqt
agvsss
CaptND
Mithil92
movierater33 (Gaetano C)
Aftersun
Nominated by:
jaimerebanal
Mehram Sharma
JoseMiguelG6
Aspergersaurus
SolitaryParade
Buzzyboi
ZevL
mattqt
harvardAlt
CaptND
Seventh_Persona
Mithil92
McMaggie Cheung (gorlamiiiiiiiii)
movierater33 (Gaetano C)
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Nominated by:
ScreechingMoron
BoomLight06
JoseMiguelG6
Aspergersaurus
Buzzyboi
Takoberu
Brandon_Steger
harvardAlt
Seventh_Persona
Mithil92
Decision to Leave
Nominated by:
jaimerebanal
ScreechingMoron
JoseMiguelG6
somepersona
ZevL
mattqt
Mithil92
McMaggie Cheung (gorlamiiiiiiiii)
Nope
Nominated by:
jaimerebanal
BoomLight06
ortune
Aspergersaurus
somepersona
Buzzyboi
Takoberu
ZevL
mattqt
harvardAlt
agvsss
Seventh_Persona
Mithil92
The Fabelmans
Nominated by:
jaimerebanal
JoseMiguelG6
somepersona
Buzzyboi
mattqt
CaptND
McMaggie Cheung (gorlamiiiiiiiii)
Babylon
Nominated by:
Mehram Sharma
ScreechingMoron
Buzzyboi
Takoberu
agvsss
McMaggie Cheung (gorlamiiiiiiiii)
movierater33 (Gaetano C)
The Banshees of Inisherin
Nominated by:
jaimerebanal
ScreechingMoron
Aspergersaurus
ZevL
mattqt
CaptND
Seventh_Persona
movierater33 (Gaetano C)
The Quiet Girl
Nominated by:
JoseMiguelG6
Aspergersaurus
SolitaryParade
CaptND
McMaggie Cheung (gorlamiiiiiiiii)
Avatar: The Way of Water
Nominated by:
somepersona
David1033
Takoberu
agvsss
CaptND

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Short Documentaries

Sun, 15 Sep 2013 13:54:46 +1200

Also see: My Favorite Short Films

The same logic of separating feature films from feature-length documentaries applies to short films: real life captured at its moment cannot be compared with fictional representations of life. Therefore, I cannot include short documentaries in an overall list of shorts.

Notes:

- This list is too short. I need to see more short documentaries. Recommendations are welcome.
- The list is planned to be under constant growth.

The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
100/100
The Light Penetrates the Dark
100/100
Roundhay Garden Scene
100/100
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory
100/100
Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge
100/100
Night and Fog
100/100
The House Is Black
100/100
Window Water Baby Moving
100/100
The Vampire
100/100
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes
100/100

...plus 34 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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Oh Thou, Stationary Cinematography! What Art Thou Trying To Tell Me While Seducing My Sight?!

Thu, 18 Feb 2016 18:05:43 +1300

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

-Ending sequence of L'Eclisse (1962). Starts at 0:50. Barely made the cut because the camera moves from time to time.
-Harbor collage sequence after the aftermath in the black-and-white opening of Tokyo Drifter (1966). Watch here. Starts at 3:04; lasts one minute.
-Half of the movie of Paradise: Love (2012). Half of the movie, however, is not enough.
-Half of the movie of Paradise: Faith (2012). Half of the movie, however, is not enough.
-Half of the movie of Paradise: Hope (2013). Half of the movie, however, is not enough.
-Opening sequence of Blood Simple. (1984). Watch here. Lasts 50 seconds.
-Opening sequence of No Country for Old Men (2007), plus some instances throughout. Watch here. Start at 0:30; lasts 75 seconds.

DESCRIPTION:

When I began to develop a more refined taste for all cinema branches, I began discovering my personality as well, one of the wonders that cinema can inflict in an individual.

In such process, I realized I am a very visual person, not necessarily being very willing to replace visuals with substance, but assigning a heavy weight to it and even attaching it to metaphorical and subjective interpretations regarding its contribution to storytelling.

The following films are entirely made of, if not mostly consist of, impactful stationary camera shots. The image you're watching looks impressive as hell, and there is a high certainty that the next shot will be greater than or equal in greatness than the current image. An interesting common (but not mandatory) denominator in these films is the abscence of score, as the images themselves provide the soundtrack of the hills, forests, animals, water, or people.

Images are the protagonist, and most of the times elevate the film's tension to unimaginable heights, be it wonder or even psychological terror, as the uncertainty of the following moments preceded by total silence leaves the viewer in an unbearable state of exciting unknowingness.

Note: This list pretends to be comprehensive, so any contributions to the list are more than welcome, even if I haven't seen them. I'll have to trust you, but make sure that the additions greatly follow the nature intended of the present list.

...plus 43 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Favorite Performances in Cinema History

Sat, 4 Jul 2020 16:57:24 +1200

ABOUT TIME.

Female or Male, Leading or Supporting, a performance remains a performance!

The title is self-explanatory. Descriptions are included in the spoiler-free notes section, suggestions are very welcome (particularly post-2010), and additions are based on purely personal preference. This list went through months of thought and rewatches, but you always forget about including "that" performance.

Unranked. Chronological.

The omission of a particular performance might not correlate with the popular consensus and viceversa, but please feel free to comment even if I have seen the film and not included a performance. I MIGHT be convinced....

The Last Laugh
Emil Jannings as Hotel Doorman
Metropolis
Brigitte Helm as Maria / Maschinenmensch / The Machine Man
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Maria Falconetti as Joan of Arc
The Blue Angel
Emil Jannings as Professor Immanuel Rath
M
Peter Lorre as Hans Beckert
City Lights
Charles Chaplin as A Tramp
Gone with the Wind
Hattie McDaniel as Mammy - House Servant
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
James Stewart as Jefferson Smith
The Great Dictator
Charles Chaplin as Hynkel - Dictator of Tomania
Citizen Kane
Orson Welles as Kane

...plus 85 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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The Best Compressed – 2012

Sat, 11 Feb 2017 08:24:22 +1300

For more yearly ranked lists, please consult the INDEX.

This list ranks the 2012 releases that had a rating between 77 and 100 (★★★★ and ★★★★★) by personal preference. Read Notes for ratings.

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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The Best Compressed - 2010

Sun, 5 Feb 2017 14:27:42 +1300

For more yearly ranked lists, please consult the INDEX.

This list ranks the 2010 releases that had a rating between 77 and 100 (★★★★ and ★★★★★) by personal preference. Read Notes for ratings.

Still to watch:
-Film Socialisme

Knifer
99/100
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
97/100
Mysteries of Lisbon
97/100
Honey
97/100
Attenberg
97/100
The Illusionist
96/100
Incendies
96/100
A Serbian Film
94/100
Poetry
92/100
In the Woods
90/100

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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The Best Compressed - INDEX

Tue, 15 Nov 2016 06:49:18 +1300

This list is dedicated to God, my Lord and Savior.

| 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 |
| 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 |
| 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 |
| 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 |
| 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 |
| 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 |
| 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
| 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |

The following list has two purposes, one of which was unavoidable even if unintended.

-The unintended one is to be a list of the best feature films (45 minutes or longer) of each year, from 1915 to actuality.
-The ACTUAL purpose is to serve as an index for future lists to come.

This list will contain yearly links to the best films of each year, that is, those that had a rating between 77 and 100 (★★★★ and ★★★★★), ordered by preference.

This list is in chronological order. For the time-being, the notes contain only the year. The lists will be created when I feel partially satisfied about my year's completion of personal priorities.

Notes: I'm afraid that, for a good amount of years, the first fifteen lists (1915-1929) will be poor, but the passing of time shall change that if God allows.

The Birth of a Nation
1915
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
1916
A Man There Was
1917
The Outlaw and His Wife
1918
Broken Blossoms
1919
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920
The Phantom Carriage
1921
Nosferatu
1922
Safety Last!
1923
The Last Laugh
1924

...plus 88 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Humble Share of Aspiring Letterboxd Filmmakers (And THE Noble Cause to Defend "Amateur" Cinema)

Fri, 28 Jul 2017 16:25:15 +1200

"The labourer is worthy of his hire."
-Luke 10:7

TMDb's recent deletion of what they have subjectively called "amateur" films (please imagine that word in infinite quotation marks) under the pretext that they are a "professional" movie database (please imagine that word in a bigger quantity of quotation marks) has threatened dozens of amazing aspiring filmmakers, including many Letterboxd users, with an imminent deletion of their work.

This takes me back to a relevant scene of a ridiculously clichéd and glossy movie called Mona Lisa Smile (2003), in which they discuss what can be considered art and what cannot. The scene had the honorable intention of challenging the conservative definitions of art based on the feelings emanated from the spectator whether if they were positive or negative (generally repulsion towards the art work).

TMDb is still stuck in this base, but what disturbs me the most about their rules and conditions, besides pervasively damaging the promotion of independent cinema and encouraging film in terms of popularity rather than actual talent, is what they state and their absurd contradictoriness, among which can be found:

•We are a professional movie database, which means that amateur films and TV series as well as school and/or student films and TV series are generally not allowed.
-"Generally" being the key word here regarding how insecure they are, this means that amateur films are mutually exclusive of the term "professional". How is, hence, "professional", defined? Let's leave that question hanging for a moment and keep on researching.

•Should an amateur movie be screened at a selective and relevant film festivals (e.g. a small town festival or the Cannes Short Film Corner do not qualify), have a proper theater release (e.g. a private/rented screening do not qualify), be on national TV in a country (e.g. small, local channels do not qualify), be on Netflix or an equivalent (e.g. content uploaded to your ownYouTube channel, Vimeo or website do not qualify), or picked up and sold by a proper distributor (e.g. a local store do not qualify), it might be allowed.
-"Might" being the key word in this remark signaling their absolute indecision capacity of whether adding a film or not, you can conclude from this sentence that "professional" means "popular", and that small local channels and film festivals do not have a "professional" judgment for selecting good films worth of being added to a "professional" database. That is a beautiful illustration of the terms "discrimination" and "elitism".

•If a person that is considered a professional makes a short film, that film is allowed even without it being released in any of the ways just mentioned. For example, should Blake Lively make a short film next week (e.g. added to Vimeo), it will be allowed because she is a professional.
-"Any" being the key word here, this demonstrates that "professional" equals "popular".

Ergo, Letterboxd is being fed data by a self-proclaimed professional site that actually promotes popularity. But TMDb is being fed data by IMDb.

LB staff! Get into action! Support your filmmaker users!!

-------------------------

This list is my little share of films I have watched from many of my friends around the world, Letterboxd users or not. This list is constituted, right now, of 29 titles (last update: Saturday, July 21, 2018). If they do disappear any time soon, I will post my reviews in this list's description. Meanwhile, I will collect all of my ratings and my ratings over 100, since I was one of the few that actually dared to do this based on the spectrum of EVERYTHING I have ever seen in my life, despite the criticisms and personal attacks I received for even daring to rate amateur films.

If, for any chance, I missed adding your work and I have seen it, please don't take it personal, as I am trying to make my memory work the best I can. Just comment: "The heck's the matter with ya", and I'll add your shorts.

FILMS IN THE LIST ARRANGED BY DIRECTOR

ELI HAYES
1) Here Even So (2015) - (Review) (IMDb)
2) Hide and Go Seek (2013) - (Review) (IMDb)
3) Eye Contact (2015) - (Review) (IMDb)

ROHIT SHIVDAS aka MILEZ DAS, with most of them edited by Mithil Bhoras, now under this account (I want his old account and reviews restored by the way!!!)
1) Landscape (2014) - (Review) (IMDb)
2) Boys After Exam (2014) - (Review) (IMDb)
3) Empty Spaces (2015) - (Review) (IMDb)
4) A Walk (2014) - (Review)
5) Exit (2015) - (Review) (IMDb)
6) Thoughtless (2016) - (Review) (IMDb)

CALLUM KNOX

1) Betrayals & Bullets: Hard Retribution (2012) - (Review) (IMDb)
2) Inviting the Demons (2013) - (Review) (IMDb)
3) Betrayals & Bullets: The Dame (2015) - (Review) (IMDb)
4) Nightfall (2016) - (Review) (IMDb)
5) Unleashing the Demons (2019) - (Review) (IMDb)

Directed by Letterboxd user Mohamed Alaa (Mohamed Radwan), now under this account (I also want the former account restored, please!!!)
1) Humanoid (2014) - R.I.P.
2) Holler (2014) - (Review)

WALEY WANG

1) Mr. Landlord (2014) - (Review)
2) First Day of Class (2014) - (Review)
3) Lunch in the Park (2014) - (Review) (starring Brad Roelandt)
4) My Life as a Student (2014) - (Review)
5) Juliet the Vagabond (2014) - (Review)

MINA RADOVIC and BORIS BOSILKOV

1) Iris (2015) - (Review) (IMDb)

THOMAS POLLOCK

1) Branded (2016) - (Review) (IMDb)
2) A Personal Journey Through Cinema History with Thomas Pollock (2016) - (Review) (IMDb)

LUDVIG GÜR, with cinematography by ADAM LEIJON

1) The Ego Death (2016) - (Review) (IMDb)
2) Clean Colored Wire (2017) - (Review) (IMDb)

1) De Röda Träden (2016) - (Review) (IMDb)

BRANDON SINGH
1) The Shell of Enigmas (2017) - (Review) (IMDb)
2) Lost in Dilation (2017) - (Review) (IMDb)
3) All Aboard the Repress Express (2018) - (Review) (IMDb)

...plus 17 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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My Additions to the Letterboxd Database

Fri, 8 Apr 2016 16:34:41 +1200

I've wanted to do this for a while, and now's the time.

The following titles are the additions I did to this valuable site through the TMDb framework back in 2013, with the exception of the Betrayals & Bullets titles, which I added recently in 2016.

Remember that any missing title registered in IMDb that does not constitute pornography can be added to the database through TMDb. I deeply encourage all users to strictly follow accuracy in the information provided as input for historical respect to the original artists.

For the sake of giving an order to the list, titles are arranged chronologically by release date.

P.S. And just for kicks, if you're curious enough, my ratings are in the Notes Section

...plus 44 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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For Gabo

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 14:53:25 +1300

A list for my one of my Venezuelan brothers Gabo, eager to explore the boundaries of filmmaking.

There is no time limit, and no order imposed. Watch them whenever you can, however you like.

Nota: Te hago la misma disculpa que a Juanito Sorpresas. Puse 11 para que el asunto sea parejo. Ten cuidado con la #5; es una retorcida obra maestra cyberpunk pero pocos la comprenden.

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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For Juanito

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 14:53:22 +1300

A list for my one of my Venezuelan brothers Juan, eager to explore the boundaries of filmmaking (and correcting his Antonioni ways :P)

There is no time limit, and no order imposed. Watch them whenever you can, however you like.

Nota: Perdón por poner 11 pero no pude omitir ninguna de las otras 10 :(

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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The Best Compressed - 2011

Sun, 5 Feb 2017 14:46:07 +1300

For more yearly ranked lists, please consult the INDEX.

This list ranks the 2011 releases that had a rating between 77 and 100 (★★★★ and ★★★★★) by personal preference. Read Notes for ratings.

Still to watch:
-Amnesty
-Margaret

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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For Anthony Le

Mon, 27 Feb 2017 13:25:23 +1300

A list of feature-length recommendations for Anthony Le.

Although the order is recommended, there are no rules, restrictions, order or time requirements. Just have fun!

Be sure to report back!

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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For Milez

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 10:09:35 +1300

A list for one of my fondest brothers and friends, Rohit Shivdas aka Milez Das, a constantly growing filmmaker and cinema enthusiast, in search for what are both essential and obscure viewings.

Brother, the order is suggested, but not mandatory. I picked 11 films and grouped them by pairs, except the last one, which is a recommendation I almost always include in every single "For [Name]" list.

No time restrictions, no order requirements, no due date, but there are three conditions:

1) Report back, if possible, with reviews, as I'd love to hear yout thoughts on these gems. If not, a comment or rating will suffice.
2) Watch #5 (Subarnarekha aka The Golden Thread) before #6 (Ekti Nadir Naam aka The Name of a River), and if possible, back-to-back. You have already seen the great Meghe Dhaka Tara so that, along with Subarnarekha, should provide a stronger emotional punch when witnessing Ekti Nadir Naam, which is both a piece of written poetry for a land and time long gone and a love letter to Ghatak.
3) Have fun and fantastic times!

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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For Alex Robinson

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 08:10:56 +1300

As per request, this is a list of recommendations for my friend Alex Robinson.

Have fun with these, my friend! No rules, restrictions, order intended or time requirements. Just have fun!

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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For James Bates

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 07:39:02 +1300

A list of recommendations for my buddy James Bates.

Have fun with these, my friend! Although the order is recommended, there are no rules, restrictions or time requirements. Just have fun!

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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For Jaime Rebanal

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 06:44:15 +1300

A list of feature-length and short movie recommendations for Jaime Rebanal.

Although the films have been personally ordered by me according to style/content and, hence, the order is suggested, Jaime may watch them whenever he likes, in the order and time intervals that best suits his conditions. These are quite dense films, so he might take a break of an undetermined length between movie and movie.

Reportedly, this is the most challenging list I have ever done for any film buff. It covers seven decades and several film movements and experimental filmmaking. But Jaime is a man up for the challenge with his expansive knowledge of films.

Most importantly, have fun, buddy.

P.S. If there has been any confusion and you have already seen one, please tell me so and I will replace it.

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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KABOOOOMM!!

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 14:29:03 +1200

*Note: This list was done while listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, which is obviously the most proper music choice for this topic ever.*

Short description:

My favorite explosions, basically. Go to the Notes section to see either the video links (if available) or a descriptive image. Spoilers abound everywhere in the Notes, though.

Not all videos have High Quality, unfortunately, but in the case of long videos, the link should take you exactly at the second of where the scene starts. Watch them before they disappear! Read the note below, and enjoy!

Boring description:

There are few things in life like an explosion. It's maybe the most impactful chemical reaction available in manipulated nature. It's like a bad girl: it's beautiful and you want to touch it, but you can't because you'll die.

Now, the last thing I want to accomplish with this list is to make my image seem to have the famous Michael Bay fetish. The difference between him and me is that I appreciate the art in a perfectly timed, beautifully edited and masterfully captured explosion. He just wants to blow everything up.

That's the thing. These are my favorite cinematic explosions regardless of the movie's quality, evaluated in terms of visual attractiveness, size, length, color, editing and sound quality. Although it is not a requirement in 100% of the cases, the bigger or longer, the better!

Notes:

- Successions of explosions are valid as long as they have a strict continuity. Zabrieskie Point qualifies because of its continuity, but the train accident in Super 8 doesn't because the sequence involves more action stunts and accidents happening during the train wreck besides explosions.
- What movie did I forget? Add suggestions! I want strictly EXPLOSIONS or a succession of them.

The Bridge on the River Kwai
"Madness, madness!"
2001: A Space Odyssey
Exploding galaxy.
Zabriskie Point
Final sequence.
The Towering Inferno
Final explosions.
Star Wars
Death Star explosion.
Apocalypse Now
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning." (goes to 0:14)
Return of the Jedi
Death Star II explosion. (goes to 7:23)
The Terminator
Fuel tanker explosion. (starts at 1:25)
RoboCop
Gas station explosion. (goes to 2:19)
Die Hard
Roof jump explosion.

...plus 34 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

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For Amaranth

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:12:55 +1300

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For Mohamed

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 03:11:48 +1200

The order of the films is suggested; however, you can watch them however you want. There's no time limit. Interruptions between one film and the next are allowed.

1-2) Color impressionism
3-4) 60's experimental cinema
5-6) B&W experimental existentialism
7-8) B&W impressionism
9-10) Perspectives on meta-art

Most importantly, have fun.

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For Asif

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 14:04:50 +1200

Brother, sorry if it took years in the making, but better late than never.

The order of the films is suggested; however, you can watch them however you want. No time limit, interruptions between one film and the next are allowed, and most importantly, have fun.

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For Robert

Thu, 5 Jun 2014 11:09:16 +1200

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For Matthew

Wed, 12 Feb 2014 15:41:18 +1300

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For Varghese

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 07:41:12 +1300