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The Paper Chase (1973)
A flawless film
"The Paper Chase" is a film about first year law students at Harvard, the protagonist being a motivated and intelligent student who is in an on and off relationship with one of his Proffesors daughters. This is the Legendary and infamous Professor Kingsfield, who is tyrannical and somewhat dismissive, yet incredibly inspiring and well received by students. Kingsfield is portrayed by John Houseman, and the performance is phenomenal and engaging. It's a performance that commands attention, and features many subtleties as well. Houseman's performance makes the Kingsfield character incredibly intriguing, like the protagonist and his classmates, the audience also becomes intrigued about just who Kingsfield is and want to learn more about him. Houseman captures the mysterious of Kingsfield in his brilliant performance. He is a supporting character with not as much screentime as his daughter, but aside from the protagonist, he is the most important. This film is almost 50 years old, not much more can be said I suppose about this Houseman performance, but other than that the comedy is good, and some moments are genuinely dramatic and even suspenseful. A great film about Law School at Harvard, though I'm uncertain how realistic it is. In any case, I recommend this movie to everyone, specifically to those who have experienced Law School.
So-won (2013)
Fantastic (Minor Spoilers)
This film offers an intense emotional experience. There are a few flaws, however, in the end, the only thing that ends up mattering is the well being of this child who endured such a horrific fate. But now on to the film making aspect and what makes this movie so effective. To begin with, the acting is great. One thing that stands out about Korean movies to me is the child acting, I've watched 3 Korean films this week with 3 excellent child actress'. First Train To Busan, then The Wailing, and now the best out of the 3, Wish, or Hope, or Su-Won, or whatever. The point is, her acting was fantastic, and so was the rest of the cast. Reading the plot description of the movie makes it sound as though the movie will be depressing, which it obviously is. However, the beauty of humanity shines through more then the horrific tragedy that befell this girl. The way everyone comes together to help her was presented in a powerful way that brought me to tears, something that rarely happens when I watch a film. The development of the relationship between Su-Won's parents is believable and engaging. The actress that plays Su-Won is incredibly talented and was the best part of the movie. There are a small amount of minor flaws with the film, but they don't stand in the way of the pure emotional experience this film gives the audience, and because of the movie succeeding on that level, I will not rate it less than a 10. But also the rating I see on IMDb is 8.5, which is too low for this movie, and a 10 rating will help that, so that's what I'm doing. This review does not make the film sound as good as it is. Honestly you should just experience the movie for yourself, it's sitting on Netflix right now.
Shôjo tsubaki: Chika gentô gekiga (1992)
Really a shame no one sponsored this film
This is a self funded, incredibly short, animated film by Hiroshi Harada. Knowing that this movie was completely self funded and self animated going in would have gave me a greater appreciation for it while watching it. The animation is incredibly choppy, and a lot of the voice acting isn't very good, but this is a movie that was basically created by one man. Given these circumstances, it turned out incredibly well. It is beautifully drawn, and its surreal atmosphere kept me engaged. Its an interesting story that could really be great if it was given an actual budget and a team of animators. But nobody funded it due to its graphic nature, and that really sucks, because it would have been really good. Even Harada's independent version got censored due to graphic depictions of child rape, and that's a shame too, he put effort in to it and that effort should be seen. Its not as though it presented the rape in a pornographic fashion. There's numerous goro manga's getting released, most of them presented as erotic, but this gets cut when it actually wants to show this material for what it should be shown as, horror. This is something with great potential that was overlooked due to its content, it could have had fleshed out characters, beautiful animation, a compelling story and a great message, but nearly all of that was lost due to the constraint of one man working on it. All of this aside, if its taken as it is, without consideration of the circumstances of its creation, its a decent little animated film with some memorable imagery, a surreal atmosphere, and cool music.
The Nightmare (2015)
Well put together
Mainly I was intrigued by this film because dreams and sleep have always fascinated me, particularly sleep paralysis. I found it to be such a strange and frightening phenomenon, and wanted to learn more about it. As a documentary, this film fails. No science behind anything to do with sleep paralysis is explained, the entire film is individuals recounting their experiences. Most of the film is reenactments during interviews with these people, and the reenactments are really the point of the movie. And many of these reenactments are pretty good, even though the budget was as low as $28,000. With what they had to work with, they put great effort into it and it turned out well. It definitely has passion behind it, and I think that its director (Rodney Ascher) has potential as a good filmmaker. But back to the reattachment scenes, I really think the purpose of the movie was to give viewers a taste of the experience of sleep paralysis. There are copious amounts of pov shots in beds while shadowy figures approach, usually these shots are then switched to the person having the experience, and then switched back. This is played over haunting music and the person being interviewed. Its similar to some of those bad ghost shows on the discovery channel in the way its formatted, though the stories recounted here I am sure are real, sleep paralysis is a real thing, ghosts I'm unsure of. I suppose that's what works about this movie, is it instills the fear of experiencing sleep paralysis in its viewers. Also some of the ways it maneuvered around the low budget was charming. But is it an informative documentary? Not at all. As a decent horror film, however, it succeeds.
Eden Lake (2008)
Had potential but disappointing (minor spoilers)
I was angry watching this film because I really wanted to like it, but there were just these flaws that kept bringing it down and taking me out of it. This could have been a powerful and emotional film that left an impression, but you can only have so many ridiculous plot conveniences before your film isn't taken seriously anymore. It is about a couple who go on a date to a lake, only to be terrorized by a sadistic gang of teens. During the first half I had some minor problems, but it was shaping up to be an engaging thriller. The part where I really started to be taken out of it was after the male character escaped after being chained up, because nobody was watching him since they all went after the female character. You'd think somebody would stand guard, considering its a size able enough group and you don't need EVERYONE to go after this one woman. Who by the way got them to go after her by using the guys phone (which the teens had possession of)to call the police. Now how did she know that they wouldn't have just killed him right there, I don't know, seemed kind of risky. Anyway they could've had him escape even with one of the teens guarding him, just have the kid leave to take a crap and run. Or maybe have a more sympathetic kid free him (yes, some reluctantly follow the leader but are really okay kids) and struggle with hiding this from his group, and maybe have his group find out and kill him. This all would've made more sense then the generic plot convenience we got. One example of this. Anyway, its not as if there's no enjoyment to be had with this movie, but don't let the cliché plot twists/conveniences bother you too much, cause there are a lot of them. But dammit this film could've been really good if the two main characters were developed more and the plot wasn't so cliché. Also more focus on the kids would be nice. One of the positive things about this film is the sheer cruelty and relentlessness of it. It doesn't hold back and can get quite brutal at times. Also, aside from the cliché stuff thrown in, it is a pretty damn good survival movie. I like seeing action/thriller movies with vulnerable every man characters dealing with situations in clever ways, with awesome moments as well. Some of that is to be found in this movie, although it's a shame that so many unrealistic plot devices mess stuff up in what could have been a realistic and entertaining survival film. Recommended to people who don't think too much and are vulnerable to cliché suspense scenes and who can't predict plot twists well. Nice concept, but painful writing that tried too hard to be cliché, which again, is a shame because what happens to the characters in this movie is depressing and extremely cruel, the story is all around filled with negative emotion. And it would have worked if this crap tossed into the plot wasn't so dull and stupid. Your like, wow that scene was great, but then some cliché garbage happens that takes you out of the movie.
Kill List (2011)
Refreshing and satisfying
There seem to be mixed feelings about this film, mainly brought on by the ending. Some seem to like the direction it takes, or at least approve of it, others seem to hate it. People claim it came out of nowhere and ruins what the rest of it was building up to. I have to say though, this was clearly what the film was building up to. There are many clues throughout that there is something else to what seems to be a straightforward thriller about a couple of hit-men. It would have been perfectly fine if it remained the crime thriller it was, but I am perfectly fine with what it turned out to be, as it was built up to by the tone and the actions of the characters. I found it to be a satisfying twist, and thought it was well executed. As for the film as a whole, the acting is fantastic, a lot of improv was done, and it came across like actual dialog between two people. The sound was really good, adding to the ominous atmosphere. The direction and lighting was really good, for instance a convincing claustrophobic feeling was given towards the end. So really good production value. Also I feel it works as a genuinely disturbing movie, unlike many which rely on shock value(the violence is intense but necessary and not gratuitous). This film has good characters a good story and a dark atmosphere, so it is unsettling without forcefully being so. Many films try hard to shock people, but fail because they aren't good movies, this is a good movie. I recommend it to anyone who wants to watch either a quality crime thriller or a quality horror film, just be prepared for the ending. I left this film feeling refreshed and satisfied.