[Day 110]
Ghiblimigs #12
I once read a review that called Isao Takahata the mad scientist of Studio Ghibli, and I don’t think any other description would do him justice.
What makes his work so singular and brilliant is also what makes it obscure and polarizing compared to that of the other Ghibli giant, Hayao Miyazaki: no Isao Takahata movie is like any other Isao Takahata movie (or any other Ghibli movie, for that matter). His body of work is…
Taxi Driver is a filthy, grimy, thoroughly unpleasant film, and it couldn’t have been any other way.
Sure to be idolized by many for all the wrong reasons — the impeccably cool aesthetics, climactic shootout bloodbath, Mohawk realness —, it is in fact a frighteningly believable, unflinchingly ugly portrait of a socially inept and mentally unstable loner as he spirals into full fascistic paranoia and sets off on a murderous rampage, told in such deliberately challenging, leisurely and unsavory fashion…
Starts out very bad, improves as it goes along, ends up quite watchable. I forgot all about it the next day. Textbook Q2 material!
Gosling is good in this and he was excellent in Barbie, but knowing that he only makes one movie every other year now (and that he’s decided to cut down on the hyper violent & depressing stuff and will exclusively make films his family can watch and enjoy going forward), it’s disappointing to know we’re stuck waiting…
Hits different when you’re burnt out from a job you used to love but which now drains you of the motivation to get out of bed each morning. What’s what, Hayao? Taking something you used to do for pleasure and turning it into how you earn your living runs the risk of leaving you worn and weary, and the solution is to take a step back and reconnect with what filled you with joy in the first place? This rewatch couldn’t have come at a better time.
Took me a couple viewings to get there, but yeah, this is a 10.
— Pronto. Tive que enfiar a mão, não teve jeito.
— Oi?
— O Tales! Me obrigou a fazer uma coisa super desagradável! Eu tava conversando com ele, me abrindo numa boa, e de repente ele começou com um papo "ah, maneiras de como subir na carreira, tô te vendo nua, pelada, cê tá pelada", aí eu... Enfiei a mão, não teve jeito.
Da série: coisas que eu definitivamente não deveria ter sido autorizado a assistir aos 9 anos de…
[Day 82]
A lot of this is hilarious, bouncing with just the right amount of absurdity and chaotic energy, but there’s a meanness to it that brings it down tremendously. I’m well aware that 1982 was A Different Time™ and the standards were different then, but it’s hard to maintain that initial enthusiasm about how zany and offbeat this is when so much of the humor, especially in the back half, lies entirely in seeing trans and mentally ill characters…
