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| STRANGER BY THE LAKE / GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL / ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE / BOYHOOD / UNDER THE SKIN |
I know I update this blog pretty frequently so you might
miss a review or two. We’re half way in to the 2014 movie year, and
like always things are just so-so. Please make sure to take some
time out to read about the great (Stranger By The Lake & Boyhood), really good (The Unknown Known & Night Moves), good (Only Lovers Left Alive) & the disappointing
(Under The Skin & Grand Budapest Hotel) films of 2014 so far (click on the titles
of each film to read their individual reviews).
MISC.
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| NYMPHOMANIAC / IT FELT LIKE LOVE / CAPTAIN AMERICA 2: THE WINTER SOLDIER / RIVER OF FUNDAMENT / RAID 2 |
The reviews above don’t represent everything I’ve seen this
year. I managed to catch a few “blockbusters” (Godzilla
& Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier), smaller indies (It Felt Like
Love) and other highly talked about films (Nymphomaniac). Before the year is
over I plan to give Eliza Hitman’s It Felt Like Love its proper due and write a
lengthy review on it because it is a great movie. Both Captain America &
Raid sequels served their purpose and entertained me, while Matthew Barney’s
latest epic; River Of Fundament, a five hour dedication to fecies & Normal Mailer)
really let me down. I don’t know if I have it in me, but I’d like to tackle
that debacle before the year is over because it really opened up a new
perspective I now have on Barney. As for Nymphomaniac, I think everything
has already been said about that film to the point where my review would just be redundant, so I doubt I’ll review it (read what PINNLAND EMPIRE contributor Leanne had to say about it on her site). I will say that I enjoyed the overall experience but was actually kind of let down by the final moments (to be honest, the last 20 minutes kind of dragged along). The problem with that for me is Nymphomaniac is the kind of film that needs to have a solid ending. A movie that's almost five hours (total) needs to go out on a strong note and I felt like Lars partially stumbled in the final minutes and just wrapped things up a little too quickly. But it will probably end up in my end of the year review in more categories than one. Nymphomaniac isnt the first LvT film that needed to grow on me over time. Perhaps I'll give this another watch before the year is over before putting my final stamp on it...
ANTICIPATED...
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| MOMMY / WINTER SLEEP / THE CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA / MR. TURNER / MAPS TO THE STARS |
Unfortunately I won’t be going to Toronto for a second year,
but hopefully between my BAM membership & the NY Film Festival, I’ll be
able to catch at least three of the five films (pictured above) that I’m highly
anticipating…
In the last half of 2014 we’ll be
getting in to more Cassavetes, Reichardt & early Linklater. I’ll be
analyzing more modern film scores, making more podcast appearances and I’ll also be
doing a review on Spike Lee’s rarest film…
thanks for reading
thanks for reading
