yeah I was right the first time.
Incredible blocking, so many interesting shots in those meeting rooms. Zilla looks crazy. That's it.
a movie that dares to dare just enough. Very complex characters and a story that had a huge potential to be taken a step forward, maybe even two.
I'd like to see Paul Thomas Anderson touch on a similar subject when he's done adapting Pynchon's entire bibliography.
Sad to realize how in a world that advocates for free-speech and the possibility of expressing one's own mind through art, such a movie could probably be made today and be framed as yet another piece of "woke" hollywood agenda.
written on the notes of "Cracked Actor" - David Bowie
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bring movies of this kind back!
Too much control for rebellious hearts that haven't quite made up their minds yet.
it also wasn't supposed to break my heart for a little hangout punk rock demential movie.
written on the notes of "Rebel Rebel" - David Bowie
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I have been looking for the right Wes Anderson movie to rewatch for a week or so. Asteroid City? Bottle Rocket? The Darjeeling Limited? I really couldn't decide and then someone decided for me, I guess.
Could be a sit-com that I wouldn't ever miss on a Sunday afternoon. Everything in the frame fits the brownish color scheme, even Gwyneth Paltrow and Owen Wilson's blonde hair. One of the best and most felt Ben Stiller performances.
Perfect asshole dad, uncool grandfather portrayal from yet another forever-will-be-missed all time great actor.
written on the notes of "Everyone Says 'Hi' " - David Bowie
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Todd Haynes should just make these not-so-fictional biopics for the rest of his life and stop wasting his time on any other genre. This is my second Todd Haynes movie by the way, the other one was I'm Not There.
Such a great time I had, so refreshing to go back sometimes and watch a director's work, their artistic contribution to the movie, playing with different shots, having a visual style. Everything has gotten more and more standardized and TV-looking over time, in my very humble eyes anyway.
Christian Bale, gays, Christian Bale being kinda gay, fictionalized David Bowie and Iggy Pop(played by Ewan McGregor on top of his game doing his best Kurt Cobain impression ???), great rock music, what more can you ask.
written on the notes of "God Bless the Girl" - David Bowie
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impossible not to adore if you spend an unreasonable amount of your time watching videos and interviews of David Bowie. just hanging out with him and admire his perfomances in various stages of his life. also something of a very cool experimental film more than a documentary, may be interesting even if you don't care that much for The Thin White Duke.
written on the notes of "Dead Man Walking" - David Bowie
terrible but funny and David Bowie's in it for 2 minutes
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it wouldn't be reasonable to explain why I loved this movie so much, but I did.
Didn't expect Ziggy to be such a good actor.
There are many shots here that will make you wonder whether Hollywood has gotten blind or lazy.
The kind of lighting, colors and set design that fell to Earth once decades ago and never came to visit anymore.
written on the notes of "Kingdom Come" - David Bowie
a very cruel movie
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the most lovely little movie of all time and I want to live in it. make it happen.
for never was a story of more woe than this of Helene and her Harry
written on the notes of "Tangled up in Blue" - Bob Dylan
sweet movie about falling out of love and jumping right into it at the most perfect time. And falling in love too easily and too much.
Woody Allen could make 138 movies in New York and manage to make it look and feel different 138 times.
And he sings here, too.
written on the notes of "Edge of the Ocean" - Bob Dylan
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I've been so obsessed with The Silence of the Lambs for so long, kind of still am, and I've never bothered to check anything else from Demme. Especially the most rock and roll movie of all time! Dork with a boring life gets kidnapped by the hottest woman alive and she slowly gets equally as crazy about him as she is out of her mind. Where do I sign?
I hope Ray Liotta got an Oscar nom.
Crazy vibes. Crazy people. Lovely. Warm colors. Summer once again. The best close ups ever in classic Demme's fashion.
written on the notes of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" - Bob Dylan
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Joaquin Phoenix's beard. Josh Brolin's frozen bananas. the beach. the light. the colors. the light green and blue. white. michael k williams. neil young. sweet. funny. summer.
written on the notes of "Journey Through the Past" - Neil Young
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it doesn't get any better in the weird feel good genre. Terrific and hilarious perfomances from the two leads.
Vera Chytilová's got the thing.
Two very normal girls who dare live properly in a crazy world full of strange people.
written on the notes of "Sweetheart Like You" - Bob Dylan
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damn near masterpiece and unlike anything I've ever seen before.
A visual masterpiece and that has only partly to do with how it looks; it's in the way the story is being told. It's haunting pictures one after the other and it communicates so much with that.
That's what Denis Villenueve is preaching. That's what David Lynch was doing.
Yet the dialogue here is at times almost poetic (mostly the witch's lines) and in the end an overkill that becomes too "late Malick". Which is fine... when Malick does it.
I wish more people realized whatever your idea of what a movie is, should be, how it's done, what kind of structure it follows, what it relies on, that's all bullshit, and it's going to be different in 5 years, so imagine what it'll be in the next 50 or 100 years if we don't blow up our planet.
Not to be the pretentious friend, I'm trying to say there's more than a pretty "well paced" story to this beautiful language!
A shame the director went for a more conventional look for Longlegs.
written on the notes of "Temporary like Achilles" - Bob Dylan
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the most comforting way to say see you later to this legend.
It feels like it was just filmed from a different dimension and uploaded somewhere in the universe.
He's in the white lodge cookin quinoa, smokin cigs, drinkin red wine.
damn, this was a bit painful. I haven't been able to watch anything since
One of the all time great experiences one could have at night in the dark.
Incredible incredible incredible sound. It does so much you don't need the characters to say a word until they do. Terrifyingly beautiful images and still maybe the most gorgeous black and white cinematography ever seen.
It was made for less than 100k dollars and they kept running out of money to finish it.
It's the beginning of a life that seems so fitting as a farewell.
David Lynch means so much to me, always has since I discovered him, immediately sparked in me an interest and a connection I could never imagine to have with an artist. There is no bigger influence on my life and art and I don't suspect that's going to change.
There's no place for any kind of rage fantasizing about what more he could've given us if some producers and studios and one notorious streaming platform weren't a product of the sad world we live in. But I was so hoping he was working on something and he had been on my mind very often recently.
I wouldn't want to be overly dramatic about "someone I didn't even know" however I can't explain to myself how weird it was to look at my phone and read
Five or six viewings later, I must've gotten the big picture, yet the scenes I love the most I can't even begin to interpret. This time above of all, the ending spoke to me and I associated it with happened, I guess. Don't ask me what that means.
but after all... this review was written on the notes of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" - Bob Dylan
had to feel like a rolling stone once more. I'm just too much in love with Bobby and a sucker for sabotaging your own relationship with the best woman you've ever met not to give this the 5 stars it may not deserve.
how does it feeeeeeeeeel
written on the notes of "He Was a Friend of Mine" - Bob Dylan
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you know I don't even wanna say much this is just great and exactly what I was looking for and the light is so gorgeous and everyone is so great and I need to get me a motorcamp
written on the notes of "I Was Young When I Left Home" - Bob Dylan
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couldn't get enough of Dylan and Marty, although the creative liberties taken in the Rolling Thunder doc weren't really possible here I guess.
watch it if you're feeling like a rolling stone but keep in mind even birds aren't free from the chains of the skyway
written on the notes of "Golden Loom" - Bob Dylan
Scorese puts together insanely great footage that captures some of the best moments in Bob Dylan's live career (did I make up that word?) and gives us a glimpse of what it was to be-- not Bob Dylan-- around His Bobness in the 70s. Everything's just incredible.
And then he sneaks moments of fiction in there with candidate Jack Tanner from Robert Altman's series "Tanner' 88" (still have to finish it) which is in itself maybe a way to best explain Dylan's songs and their message and what he thinks of them and of himself.
Never had so much fun with a documentary.
written on the notes of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" - Bob Dylan
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The Apartment by Billy Wilder but there's no apartment and she's dumber than Miss Kubelik.
I love the way everything looks.
If that were me I'd show her who really means business in the suicide field
written on the notes of "Dirge" - Bob Dylan
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Bed and Board feels like a Wes Anderson rom-com 20some years before Wes Anderson. A bizarre, subtle (maybe the right word is dry) comedy about two weird sweet people. Truffaut makes the easiest shots so much more interesting and entertaining than they should be.
Simple and great lighting, the colors make everything stand out.
Jean-Pierre Léaud is funny and he does nothing, Claude Jade is great and too beautiful to be real.
And as man usually does, he'd rather be with a hooker than change for the woman he loves.
written on the notes of "If Not For You" - Bob Dylan
I saw Alfred Hitchcock's take on Marie Belloc Lowndes's novel a few years ago and it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I wasn't much into silent movies yet. The Lodger was the first time I understood a silent movie could be great and it's one of my favorites.
Quite different from the novel, it still manages to give a disturbing and lovely feeling altogether, just like the novel.
Uncle Alfred was ahead of his time and already displaying his visual mastery; many shots prove this from the very beginning.
Mr.Sleuth is duality of man himself, eerie and charming, weird and lovely, he's introduced like an alien-- fascinating and kinda cute... what if he wants to kill us all?
written on the notes of "Ballad in Plain D" - Bob Dylan
terrific church drama with the intensity and energy of a thriller that lowkey turns into a comedy in the last 15 minutes.
Amazing perfomances all around. It needed more Isabella Rossellini.
Like Better Call Saul did before, Conclave shows you one of the solutions to the terrible flat lighting of new era/digital filmmaking is playing with colors and creating fantastic sets.
written on the notes of "Heart of Mine" - Bob Dylan
not sure about what happened here, but His Bobness was singing in the middle of scenes and that's one sneaky way to make a good movie. Cate Blanchett is more Bob Dylan in the 60s than Bob Dylan in the 60s was.
written on the notes of "To Be Alone With You"
craziest movie of 2024
a unique feeling that has been nowhere to be found in cinema maybe since The Witch, and of course it was a Robert Eggers movie. And just as nowhere to be found is Bill Skarsgård in that costume. What the fuck. Is that his real voice?
A very odd and great look.
Lily Rose Depp is amazing. Nicholas Hoult had an outstanding year. Dafoe is Dafoe.
Overall not quite the masterpiece I was expecting, nor the masterpiece I was ready to call it in the first act. A fantastic movie and a different kind of experience nonetheless.
I love movies
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It can't be. This his can't be possible.
Movies can look like movies again?
A year after Oppenheimer we're blessed with another ambitious movie about the ambition of man, from an ambitious artist. It does vaguely resemble the Manhattan Project for a while, or something close.
Laszló Tóth is a fragile and flawed genius, like Robert J.
Felicity Jones has her own Kitty Oppenheimer moment in the end, but she already steals the scene ever since she gets off that train.
Guy Pearce plays Aldo Raine from Inglorious Basterds with a little Daniel Plainview sprinkled on top. Terrific perfomance and definitely Oscar worthy.
It shares obvious similarities in themes and characters with There Will Be Blood, but there is something about the music, editing and the relationships between Laszlo and Erzsebeth that reminded me of Phantom Thread.
The cinematography is breathtaking and you heard that from everybody else.
Allow me to say I wish Brady Corbet took the story to the next level, but he's telling us in our face, at least twice, that this isn't a pretty Hollywood picture.
Necessary rewatch. Need to find out more.
I was surprised. Timothy's star power is real. I didn't give a damn about Bob Dylan until 2 hours ago (more like 4, had to get home).
It works because it's a vibe. If you catch on the vibe Timothy just carries it on his shoulder and it's a pleasure to watch. In fact I wasn't into it at all for the first 20 minutes. Give movies their time, always.
I could really rewatch it and enjoy it so much more, sometimes you can feel it. Not sure what to make of the movie on its own, trying to picture it without Chalamet's great perfomance. But I'm all for the vibes.
That's also because I almost forgot the last 20 minutes were terrific.. an artist biggest tragedy, being forced to be a puppet for the fans to pull the strings.
((RANT INCOMING, SKIP IF YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT CINEMATOGRAPHY))
really confused about the look they went for. Night scenes, especially concerts and streets, looked beautiful. Interior scenes looked like a netflix tv show. You do such a great job with creating a certain esthetic just to nullify it while shooting. It's like someone brought a digital camera to the 60s. Phedon Papamichael, DP of A Complete Unknown, justified this choice by saying, "film has no longer the TEXTURE I was looking for, the stock is TOO CLEAN and too slow," now I'm no expert but my humble eye says that's exactly what you got, sir, too clean and no texture at all.
Anyway. Good movie.
Wrote this review on the notes of -
Girl from the North Country.
Antichrist is an experience. It was definitely a strange and shocking one for me.
I don't know what to make of it as a movie.
As a piece of art, an extreme representation of post traumatic stress disorder and possibly a metaphor for an abusive relationship, it's interesting and ridicolously on point. Maybe on a metaphorical sense. At least I hope.
I sure could understand what Willem Defoe had in his eyes when his crazy wife was trying to stab him with scissors. The rage and vague disappointment of someone who loves you but has had more than enough with you and still can't end it... but he deceived me.
If Von Trier used his great talent and understanding of wildest human nature to write good MOVIES, he could be close to the directors he tries to be.
The lighting is incredible. Playing with strong and cold white coupled with off putting and mostly dark, dead colors can never go wrong. Camerawork here does more than trying to mimick a documentary. The camera is always in the right place where the eye would and maybe shouldn't be in real life.
I really don't know how to rate this.
one way or another Lars Von Trier always casts Charlotte Gainsbourg as a nymphomaniac.
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I don't know what it is about this movie but I got hypnotized for 100 minutes
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still one of the greatest 3rd acts ever.
still an unbelievably powerful perfomance from Timothy Chalamet.
still a 10/10 perfomance from the entire cast.
still the best score since Oppenheimer.
still, Hans Zimmer is one of the greatest.
still some gorgeous shots from Villenueve and Fraser that not many people have matched in movies of this scope since og Star Wars.
still the greatest movie of the year, by far.
Sean Baker really needs to go home with an award that night when all eyes will be on Brady Corbet, Coralie Fargeat and hopefully Villenueve, because he tricked all of you into believing it's a movie about the inevitable trauma, internal struggle and life of a sex worker.
This is about the average guy's hidden dream to rescue a prostitute and marry her and it isn't even subtle. It happens twice.
It's a nice movie tho. Sean Baker has that hangout and simplicity vibe in him.
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have you ever seen Gladiator? If the answer is no, what are you doing here? And what are you doing with your life?
If you have, then imagine Gladiator, swap a grown up Lucius with Maximus, add Denzel being Denzel (the greatest actor of all time) and you have seen 3/4 of this movie. But make no mistake, the last part is still about Lucius's revenge.
Nevertheless... I WAS ENTERTAINED.
It's pretty good. Ridley believes (says) this is the best movie he's ever done. God bless his heart.
I'm just glad this man is 87 years old making two epic grand scale movies like Napoleon and Gladiator II within two years. I'm a little less glad that he seems not to care to make great movies that look like a billion dollars anymore.
Gladiator looks MAGNIFICENT compared to this and it was made 24 years ago. Too bad.
But he sure knows what he's doing. 2h 30min of a movie I wasn't too interested in and it never once bored me.
next time I should try rewatching it right after Gladiator. Might be counterproductive, might be the key to wake up that nostalgia.
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Demi Moore's terrifying metamorphosis into the beautiful Margaret Qualley, aging into the old lady from The Shining, right before she ultimately turns into John Merrick, The Elephant Man.
If she isn't at least nominated for all the awards out there, I better see the greatest perfomances of all time being picked over hers.
So much Style for a movie called The Substance.
Coralie Forgaet and Benjamin Kračun dare shoot on digital and make it look absolutely gorgeous. Never off putting or usual lazy digital lighting, not a boring shot, colors and great contrast of dark and light. It isn't about film vs digital, it's about creating an aesthetic that fits the story and that looks good. And they did it.
Fantastic sets, I read they basically shot it all on stages and it's amazing. Terrifying make up and (mostly?) practical visual effects.
Obviously it's about women, the unrealistic and increasingly demanding beauty standards set for them, especially but not only, in the show business; it's about aging and what that does to the career and life of a woman.. but Elizabeth's obsession and need for the "substance" that's killing her has to be a metaphor for drug addiction, at least to some degree.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm glad a movie that's being praised for its obvious message and good filmmaking can be interpreted in different ways.
and someone please show this to Vincent Hanna
Terrific. A man torn between two different kinds of guilt and justice. Not one dull moment and it's just a bunch of people talking. Nicholas Hoult doesn't miss. Amazing ending.
Clint Eastwood should live at least 10 more years.
see it ain't hard to make movies look good again. It's not even over stylized, at all. Just the strongest white light always hitting the side of characters' faces and hair storming through beautiful windows, venetian blinds inside of great sets carefully chosen with the right colors and texture that reflect the light even better. Kudos to Yves Bélanger and Clint Eastwood.
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there's nothing better for a happy Christmas
this movie invented light and there's a certain point from which every shot looks more and more gorgeous outdoing the previous one and I believe every movie that gets made should try to look at least 20% as good as this, because brother.. we are absolutely not there.
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"You gave me peace in a lifetime of war."
fair enough, this isn't a very faithful adaptation. And the movie is telling you in the end.. "inspired by Homer's The Iliad" on top of being called Troy, if you could believe there would be any possible reason for that. I don't suppose you figured they just thought it sounded cooler..
The thing I won't let slide is how they made Hector's death so emotional while also keeping out his Farewell to Andromache and their son. Such a beautiful piece of writing that hit me when I was in middle school if you could believe that. Could've easily be snuck in there before he left to fight Achilles and it would've made grown men cry. Too bad.
Another thing is how they just made up Achilles and Patroclus being cousins. Why? What purpose does it serve, really? Even if you wanted to portray them as simply very close friends, you would've gotten the same result.
In comparison, his more romantic relationship with Briseis may be unfaithful to the source material but at least it's based on something and it's a creative choice that makes sense.
An addition I did like is the strong presence of Odysseus. Don't care if it's not how it's supposed to be. Give me more.
Anyway, as a movie it's great. Every single battle and action piece is out of this world. It's about as epic as a movie can get. The director of such a masterpiece like Das Boot knew what the hell he was doing.
If you completely dismiss this movie just because you didn't see Achilles sliding his tongue under every corner of Patroclus mouth you need to grow up. And pick up The Iliad while you're at it.
But, maybe we also need to grow up and tell Luca Guadagnino to remake this instead of American Psycho.
and thanks to my man Chris Nolan for awakening my inner love for greek mythology.
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all of you tryhard cold hearted grinches clearly haven't seen this on the warmest cold day of the year with your dad
Merry Christmas letterboxders.
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I'm choosing blasphemy for Christmas and I'm going to say that, on my fourth or fifth viewing, I'm completely devastated in seeing Laura Palmer suffering worse than Jesus Christ. Mel Gibson must've been a Twin Peaks fan.
watch it always with the Missing Pieces. It becomes all so much more dream-like, or rather nightmarish.
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racism and the law enforcment's obsession with solving crimes for the sake of it at the risk of throwing any possible suspect in jail and letting the criminals walk free.
Strong themes, maybe not the most entertaining story to tell, but a necessary one. plus Norman Jewinson shoots this film with the audacity of thinking he's the coolest guy ever and he doesn't miss. So many great shots for a "smaller scale" movie.
so beautiful. I'd seen this only once over a year ago but I would often think about it. We just don't make them like this anymore. Characters that feel real, witty and funny but never dumb dialogue, a heart. Very interesting personalities. And with a photography so gorgeous it seems like it's trying to compete with the wonderful Shirley MacLaine.
If you've ever seen any Woody Allen movie he basically played Baxter his entire career.
it doesn't get older and you appreciate more and more details over time.
Brad Pitt's perfomance keeps getting funnier.
It always manages to stay entertaining and feed you one great scene after one great scene and never doing so by giving you the impression it's overdoing it.
I need to see it at least seven times.
edit: just noticed I saw it again last time almost exactly a year ago
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wow, Allen and Carlo Di Palma did not hold the f down with those lights. Probably his most gorgeous looking movie.
Lovely comedy about a writer who finds out he's a hack and a mob guy who finds out he's a writer.
James Woods at his coolest rocking Miami Vice fashion and screwing just about anybody minus the good women in his life. One of the greatest cuts to black of all time.
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I don't understand movies. I saw Memories of Murder over a year ago. I thought it was really good and the last shot was haunting. Now I started to have goosebumps much before the end and almost cried at the last shot.
I liked it much more overall this time around, from start to finish. It isn't too heavy, it has its funny/over the top moments, but when it turns heavy it's really damn heavy. The scene of the little girl and the woman walking in the woods is pure horror and masterful suspense.
The cinematography is so perfectly gloomy. Everything looks black: leaves, the city, light, flowers are dim. Even in those shots with the beautiful yellow grass it feels dark.
Bong Joon-ho first tries as best as he can to put you in the spot of the victim, then makes you look straight in the eye of a serial killer, and lastly it's him directly to stare in his eyes.
hadn't seen a Park Chan-wook movie in too long. I decided to go for one I had appreciated but never fully understood.
Turns out it wasn't even that hard to follow, but it sure was masterful. Park Chan-wook just can't help but try to impress you with the camera every 2 minutes and he absolutely delivers.
The romantic thriller sub-genre is slippery, it can get too Will/Clarice-Hannibal in a heartbeat or too much like being in the mind of a teenager with a (not so)secret passion for killers... but this is THE Park Chan-wook we're talking about so he made one of the very best movies of the first half of the decade out of it. I remembered the ending briefly but this time around it really hit me.
I also really love when a writer/director can offer their take on different genres while keeping their style and let you know who's behind that goddamn camera. Amazing.
broke my fucking heart..
It's a terrific police film with the most unusual detective and a serial killer you'd like to beat the shit out of worse than everybody else in the movie does. It kind of follows the Se7en formula that reveals a twist along the journey and then goes further crazy until the movie is over. It's got a lot in common with Se7en overall, but it's original and too awful to be real. I liked the sort of I Saw The Devil dynamic as well.
Wasn't the hugest fan of its look, but it's got a certain style to it and it plays a lot with the lights. That's always cool to me regardless of my taste.
Probably deserves a higher score. I didn't want it to end even when there was nothing left. I'd like to revisit it and see what happens.
name's not Sam but I did it anyway
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Koji Yakusho might be the greatest detective actor. He's got the ability to stay terrifically real in movies where there's nothing of normal at all, while playing completely different kinds of detectives in different movies.
The theme of the dead not wanting to be dead has always fascinated with me and I couldn't stop thinking about Bergman's Cries and Whispers. And Shutter Island, for obvious reasons.
It pretty much merged elements from Cure and Pulse, but the result isn't a perfect movie that gets close to either, I think.
Masterful use of space, dim lighting and blocking from Kurosawa, as usual.
seen a few people do that
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