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Emilia Pérez 2024
The cocktail of themes and stylistic choices on display struck me as inorganic and incoherent. Emilia Pérez is full of “style” yet kind of ugly to the eyes; Audiard is not a young man and there’s more than a faint whiff of “how do you do, fellow kids” to his approach here. Meanwhile, the specter of Pedro Almodóvar looms like a vengeful spirit. For a movie that prides itself on being a fusion of genres, it’s not nearly crazy enough.
That said, I wasn’t bored and I liked the ending.
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Lost Hearts 1973
Uneven but the ghosts are terrifying and, in particular, the scene with the hurdy gurdy is one of scariest I can recall seeing anywhere.
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JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass 2021
Stone’s JFK is one of my favorite movies. This documentary is … sad. As a dramatization, the 1991 movie obscures the fact that the sources for this stuff are all kooks and book salesman. But this documentary lays that fact bare, for 118 minutes of incomprehensible talking head jibber jabber.
I also think QAnon and the Anti-Vax community have completely ruined the fun of conspiracy theories. Watching credential-less people who call themselves “reseachers” speak with ludicrous authority about hazy, scattershot nonsense isn’t fun in 2021 — it’s just a bummer now. The mainstreaming of insanity killed the bit. I’m sorry.
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Sour Grapes 1998
An early attempt at Curb-style plotting (and I guess it’s moderately interesting as such), but it’s awful, with slack pacing, terrible performances, a dispiriting lack of funny situations, and a director—Larry David himself, unfortunately—with no clue what to do.
Curb Your Enthusiasm rectified most of these issues, telling stories in thirty minute chunks and incorporating lively improvisation from funny people. Craig Bierko—and it’s probably mostly not even his fault—gives one of the most annoying performances I’ve ever seen.
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