mariammansuryan Reviews

Donnie Darko (2001)

What the hell happened?

[10/10 · 16 March 2020]

It's hard to describe. The film has many layers and a spice of uncertainty about what's real and what isn't.

If I go with analyzing Donnie's character - he's antibullshit. He doesn't believe that life can be linearly defined and understood like his teacher tries to do. Ms. Farmer, on the other hand, tries to believe in the illusion that if you live a life, abiding certain pre-set principles that bring you closer to love than to fear, you will salvaged.

It's clear from the beginning that Donnie goes to therapy. This is because he sees a giant Bunny-Rabbit: Frank from the future. Frank tells him when the world will end. Well, perhaps this means when Donnie will die, because our death is the end of the world for us. He has 28 days.

The real question here is whether Donnie ever lived. What threw me off was the fact that Gretchen didn't recognize Donnie Darko. Gretchen also died, but if Donnie never lived, she wouldn't have died, neither would Frank, or anyone else. The school wouldn't get burned, the airplane that would crash into their house would be coming out of nowhere and his mum and sister wouldn't be into it.

This film resembles THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, the second ending where the character realizes that the world would be right if he wasn't born at all. Not that Donnie isn't born - but he dies before all hell can break loose. To me he becomes the sacrifice of time so that people don't suffer. He was just a wrong breed.

And what Donnie accomplished was to build a time machine. Through this time machine he went back and slept through the crash and let himself die.

Barton Fink (1991)

More of an Analysis than a review

[18 April 2019]

What the heck was this all about?

Well, let's start with the obvious, shall we? Barton Fink is a writer who had a successful production in New York and then was invited to write for Hollywood with a capital H. But all they wanted him to write was... A boxing film with a small b. What eventually - after the long film - Barton came up with was, as he called it, the script of his lifetime. There a person is not in a literal battle but rather a battle against his soul. His manager did not like this but rather than firing Barton because "it would be too easy", sent him away to try again.

Basically Barton is an artist with a big desire to write about the "common-folk". But when his neighbor - the most common-folk you can find - comes to him and begins to tell his story, Barton interrupts him and speaks about his writing struggles.

One of the reviewers suggested that Barton doesn't like knowing the true nature of what he's writing about but he is rather obsessed with their idealistic appearances. This is a great comment: Fink never opens the box but he carries it like it matters. Fink in my opinion murders the woman he sleeps with because maybe she would make it all work out, but that would be too neat for him, wouldn't it? And Fink is obsessed with the picture of the girl in his room perhaps, as this same reviewer mentioned, because he cannot see her face.

Also, what stroke me is just how many strange things happened without Barton really delving into them and trying the understand why those things might have occured. For example how the bird fell at the end, or how the body was murdered. It almost felt like he lacked curiosity. I mean, even his glasses when he watches the film of the wrestlers in Hollywood reflect it all, almost like they don't allow that 'cheap trash' of a film to reach his brain.

The whole film experienced a descent into madness. It all began quite normal and turned crazy just like Barton's mind did - defying reality by the end of the film.

However one shot that makes me question whether the film was not just an illusionary thing in Barton's head is the beginning image upon which the credits roll. There we see the same wallpapers as the hotel to which Barton arrives a later. The camera dollies in on the pattern and due to Coens' extensive use of subjective perspective, this suggests that we as an audience might in Barton's head reflecting upon the reality in a snippet of time.

What is clearly evident, is that there is too much pressure on Fink. He is asked to do what he isn't ready for. The whole system cheers for him, heck the manager even kissed his foot on the behalf of the studio, but all this does is make Fink madder and madder and makes him attach more importance and otherworldliness to what he does.

Inception (2010)

When I first saw this...

[9/10 · 31 August 2018]

... I really loved Inception. It was one of those really cool movies that broke my 12 year old conceptions of the dreams I was seeing. Highly effective and all. Now in retrospect, as the 17 year old me thinks about this film, it was still great, but not as amazing as I used to think perhaps. The ending was way more predictable then I thought it was, and there certainly were a couple of plotholes.

But nevertheless, I trust my 12 year old self. If she enjoyed it, then there was something about Inception. At least it captivated me, whether it was music, scenery, DiCaprio's acting or just the fact that it posed a new mystery for me. Oh yes, when I was younger I especially loved stuff that I would watch and not understand. That explains also why I loved Cloud Atlas and The Fountain. Something I thought was very really deep.

Now unfortunately it's gotten more difficult to impress me. I wish at times I still had that spark in my eyes when watching such movies:)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Incredible

[10/10 · 31 August 2018]

Shawshank redemption left me feeling human. Superb acting and masterful directing, and amazing music, and everything else crumbled together in one film that a person simply must watch.

I understand Darabont is a prison fan. Have only seen two of his films and both ar in prison (the second one is The Green Mile). I guess there is something extremely attractive about jails. How this place that seems so inhumane and cruel is full of real people in fact, who may have wronged during their lives, but they are real. They are able to love and hate and fight... This is represented through everyday detail of the film.

And then someone is thrown in who has the guts and the brains and who makes this prison life just a little better for the people there. He is extremely kind. In a way, the protagonist is very similar to the main character of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Loved it. Awesome. Amazing!

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

What a Masterpiece.

[10/10 · 31 August 2018]

I had been contemplating that idea of being stuck for a long time. Everyone is stuck, and this locked in syndrome was the perfect representation of that along with the image of the diver sinking inside the water in his heavy impenetrable costume.

Truly masterful how you are placed in and out of the character's head, how you hear his thoughts and you as an audience are locked in together with him. The fact that the story is real only adds value to the film and makes one want to read the book.

There is everything here, comedy, drama, romance, abstraction...

The Matrix (1999)

Um... Yeah. Idk.

[6/10 · 31 August 2018]

The first time I saw this film it was truly impressive. Now I'm feeling a sort of a star wars vibe when I see it again. The production is awesome and I love the biblical allusions. But at the same time the film is so Hollywood. It is really predictable to begin with. I also hate movies where there is a "chosen one" - just not my thing. At times really cheesy, especially the coding guy's lines.

There were cool effects no doubt. Even a couple funny parts, like when they go up the elevator and the wall collapses. There was a dynamic and the film surely didn't bore, but it was just so Hollywood...

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Tarantino Rules

[10/10 · 31 August 2018]

My favorite film of his perhaps. It just gets you! All the way from the dialogue in a small cafe to the... dialogue in the small cafe. And everything between the small cafe dialogues, just took my breath away.

It was at times hilarious, at times thoughtful, and the best parts were the mix of those two emotions. Tarantino is a master of using music in his films, it almost seems as though music is his building block for the film. Tarantino is a man who truly is cinema. Not just through his films but through his lifestyle. I mean he has probably seen and analyzed more films then most of the people.

Thanks for this awesome experience, Quentin!

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Ahhh... Goosebums

[10/10 · 28 August 2018]

Stop it Deren. This is a freaking awesome movie. I mean its music, acting, script, practically everything. All I would add would be a bit more moments of joy for the sake of a better connection with the characters, but even without this the film was perfect.

As a viewer, I really went through all the development of addiction together with the characters. It scared me profoundly, but more than scaring, it made me very melancholic about life for some reason. I loved it how Aronofsky used the fridge as a character and the fridge puppeteer is also part of the cast in the final titles. This shows the great imagination of Aronofsky.

Another scene that really stuck with me is the part where the boy is running towards Marian, but as he ran, I imagined a vertigo effect, of the bridge getting further and farther, symbolising that he would never reach her, that pure and beautiful dream.

This film did not bore for even a second, and I even watched it the second time.

Fight Club (1999)

One of the Best

[10/10 · 28 August 2018]

One of the best films I have ever seen. Truly an amazing story that I feel like has just dived into this character's head and the writer of the novel probably knows it inside out. I loved it how the entire movie was presented from the narrator's point of view. We see his visions, we believe him, we live the story together with him.

There is a passive love in this movie, that's what I'll call it. It's emotions are often portrayed through the passive voice of the narrator, the lighting, the costumes. Everything in Fight Club adds on to the effect. And this creates a profound connection with the characters.

I fell in love with this movie to such an extent that I watched it twice alone and once with my friend. One of the films that brings me close to choking. I just love it, I don't even have to explain it, I just love it and that is all.

I Origins (2014)

Fine... I guess...

[5/10 · 28 August 2018]

This is one of those movies that has a complicated plo so I don't like it. I mean, not necessarily, because I am a fan of Cloud Atlas per say, but there was something unnatural about I Origins and especially its meaning. I did realize yes that it was a battle against science and spirituality, but I think this was not explored well enough in the movie. I think too many things just started and were so brief. I loved the passion the protagonist had about making an artificial eye for example, but halfway through the movie we basically lose this. The worm gets an eye, he is on the television... cool! But what then? Then he is searching for this woman lowkey believing her soul may be in the child. And I'm all sitting there going like bullcrap! I mean come on, it's obvious that yeah he was gonna find the child and be all spiritual and stuff, but please... like too obvious. But I did like how he found out because she was afraid of elevators.

I really did not believe the character of Sophie. She doesn't seem real, I think her character should had been developed way more than it was. However I did believe the scientist's character. I think there was some great acting and screenwriting put into him.

In the Mood for Love (2000)

Sounded Great!

[9/10 · 28 August 2018]

This film definitely did not have the best plot I have ever known. But the director did such a great job, that it did not matter if we had heard this story a thousand times.

The music was simply awesome. I had heard it before but never knew it was a movie score. The director overused the music, but honestly, that was such a deliberate choice that it only enhanced the cinematic style. A couple more things he overused in such a way were slow motion shots and frames within the the main frame. The frames gave this film a real Ozu feel... And the music was strange, strange because beside the beautiful soundtrack, Wong Kar Wai also used some Spanish music. And I just kept trying to understand: why? Maybe he wants to make sure we don't think the film is purely meant for Hong Kong, but rather extends to the rest of the world too, as such a love affair could really happen anywhere.

There was definitely social context about all of this, maybe even political but I didn't catch that part too well. Socially, both of the people were oppressed by the society such as the neighbors who it seemed, had their windows wide open to see and comment on all the characters were doing. Hence maybe frame within a frame? This makes lots of sense because a frame not only shows you what the world is, but it shows this world to you from a certain perspective. Like when the girl is sitting alone reading a newspaper, and the man goes behind her, we already associate them together just because of the framing.

Wong never showed the faces of their spouses, maybe again, saying that it does not really matter what they look like because they don't really exist in the protagonists' lives, hence they shouldn't in ours either.

Overall a greatly made fim. I loved everything about it.

Forrest Gump (1994)

Run Forest!

[9/10 · 25 August 2018]

Ah, so many references to this movie, either from comedy shows or in real life. Forrest Gump is a great movie, I love it when you get introduced to this one person's life from inside out and are allowed to see all of its futileness. At that one moment you realize how the smallest of things are the most important and how life can be lived like a feather, floating up in the air.

Forrest Gump lives through war, joy, suffering, but he stays human, he loves and hates, but more loves, till the end of the film. Making the protagonist disabled makes him even more vulnerable a character that more of us can relate to. Because even though most of us aren't disabled physically, we all suffer from time to time.

I love one sequence that really stuck with me here. That is when Forrest runs, everyone comes, asks for a cause and joins him. Forrest does not have a reason to run - life just goes on, and he simply has to do something to live, and to feel alive - Forrest runs, as he used to in the childhood. Forrest's dream is only this girl called Jenny, again, something very simple, just a man in love. But in this simplicity, one finds the beauty of existence. Which only appears when a person spreads life around, spreads kindness and existence.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Well! Awesome!

[9/10 · 25 August 2018]

This movie was awesome, it's story, its actors, the kindness of the sheer act of earnestly living. Those who say the movie was nothing compared to the book... well, I don't know, haven't read the book yet (but I definitely will), however the movie was awesome. It made me laugh and cry in its everyday reality.

The contrast between the nurse and the man shows the contrast between the 'bad' but honest, and the well mannered but manipulative nurse. She wanted everyone to just be as emotionless and lifeless as possible, to make them all the same. To always be in control. But the protagonist shows that those men have their lives, and their lives are not up to this woman to control.

Really great! Loved this movie.

Enter the Void (2009)

Ahhhh!

[8/10 · 25 August 2018]

Stop it, you are making me high! This film made me feel like I was high, and then dead, and then a lonely spirit wandering off in the irreversible time of life. What a camerawork, what a lighting, what an epileptic high! I think Noe is amazing to learn from, he just squeezes the juices of cinema and makes an experience that is uniquely his, like a Dali painting that you can't mistake for anyone else. Your a love, Noe, even though I really don't love your stories so much at times.

Love (II) (2015)

Um... Conflicted

[6/10 · 25 August 2018]

I don't really know what to think. Would never let myself say this film was bad, it really wasn't in terms of cinematography. But what is good cinematography with a crap story. This is my problem with Noe, if only he could have a good screenwriter, sometimes I think. The style and leaps of time are still very attractive to me. It seems that the whole film is a stream of consciousness of Murphy. But honestly, I hated the female actress for the role, whoever she was, I thought the casting was done very poorly.

After watching irreversible, Love was considerably weaker and worse. Again, the use of color was something... remarkable, the editing, the pacing, everything in terms of production were great. But I keep realizing that great production with a bad story does not have much value.

Irreversible (2002)

A MasterPiece of Cinema

[9/10 · 25 August 2018]

Wow! I gotta say, there is a hack lot to learn from Gaspar Noe. And I mean this in all aspects of his cinematography. As a young filmmaker, it was very necessary for me to discover Noe, his style, his play with time, his use of color... Except one thing I did not particularly love was the story. Not a bad one, but since he used the time-going-backwards-format, I wished the beginning and the end (or the end and the beginning for that matter) would have a stronger connection.

In the beginning, the camera flies around, circles a jailroom where two men are having a conversation about why they are there, and comforting each other on one of them having sex with his own daughter. I mean, you UNDERSTAND not to expect anything moral from this film in the first two minutes after the titles practically. And then suddenly the camera leaves the cell from the window and men are being driven out of a club called Rectus in a devastated state by the ambulance cars. Later it is revealed that the quarrel in Rectus began because the protagonist's girlfriend Alex was raped by someone and he was searching for this man in the club.

What happens at the end, is that Alex is laying in the grass, reading a book, as the camera rotates around her and ends up in the sky, showing the irreversibility of the time and how it destroys everything even the purest of creatures. This is connected with the beginning actually, when I think about it now because in the beginning, the two men are sitting in the cell. The time has already destroyed them, and those two men could easily be the protagonists. The film actually rolls from negative to positive I would say because in the beginning everything was nice and dandy. But you don't feel nice and dandy when you see a group of women reading their books tanning under the sun. You know Alex's fate at this point, and the shot, just the fullness of the shot suggests that those other women are also going to be destroyed by the time. Later camera shifts to a group of children and you realize the children's fates are also going to be destroyed by the time. Not to forget - it all starts with a man raping his young daughter...

Gaspar Noe's tone: his attitude towards people is very negative. Why show the rape scene in its entirety? It heightens the effect, as though Noe wants to highlight all the disgusting things in life. This is the reason why this review is not 10 star. I love seeing the harsh reality of rape, especially since the camera angle makes you see it from the girl's point of view. I don't really know what's the problem with this... honestly it may just be the taboo in my head, which says dude this is too much! At the same time there are positive moments too in the movie, like when the three people are walking in the metro and talking, discussing life. But even this is about sex. And in life I don't think it's all about sex, I think there are some other more subtle ways to show two people are in love. However I also do realize it's a matter of style whether you want to be as exposing as Noe (I mean, he doesn't even cut the camera! That's highest level of exposing) or as subtle as some other directors where love is shows through details... like in a movie I recently watched - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

One way or another, there is still a hack LOT to learn from Noe. His camerawork is fascinating. How it flies around time and space without stopping through the entire film. I mean it does cut obviously, but in a highly stylized way that people may not even notice. I always wanted to shoot a film like this, because I think in a way such camera captures the reality of life - we don't experience life in cuts, do we? I'm not saying I don't love montage for example, but this is just something else to try.

And the last thing I'll mention in this review which is maybe too long, is Noe's use of color. It's awesome, amazing, killer. I mean he is not afraid. He is a brave director to make the entire underground rape scene all red. And this contrasts with the normal lifelike colors of the metro or the vibrant green of the last scene where women lie on the grass. He is brave to show anything, at times I think though Noe would feel extremely restricted without sex in his movie. But who cares, so would Tarantino without blood, Pasolini without Greek Tragedies, or von Trier without Charlotte Gottesberg. That is not a criterion to evaluate by.

The Green Mile (1999)

A great film!

[9/10 · 22 August 2018]

The only problem was... a bit cheesy. But sometimes you need a cheesy vibe too.

The character of the short guard really reminded me of Hitler. I thought Hitler would have exactly the same motives to be the way he was. Extreme fear and excessive pride, that's the combination that turns men into monsters. The film was obviously very literately shot, nothing special but all very eloquent. The casting was greatly done, a film that one enjoys truly.

The surprising moment for me here was the combination of genres which truly came as a surprise, out of nowhere. And I think this is what sets green mile (stylistically) apart from Shawshank, its blending of genres.

Ashes and Snow (2005)

Threw me into a dark deep meditation

[9/10 · 22 August 2018]

I was watching this asleep and awake, I enjoyed it in a completely different way than I enjoyed any other film - a meditation of another level.

The images which I saw were mesmerizing, and combined with the poetry I felt like I was floating over my life in a dream. From the very first shot, the cinematography was a killer and I thought the Sepia tones really added to the atmosphere.

I read the "poem" or words of this movie later, it reads especially well under Pink Floyd, Echoes. Try it, really worth a shot.

The Lobster (2015)

What's the point?

[3/10 · 21 August 2018]

I'll give you this - the first shot was marvelous, apart from that, there is very little positive I can think of about this film.

Reflection of society? Okay... I did not feel that. Yeah: the bad society tries to make all of us the same, and it sometimes feels like there is no groups we can be a part of without suffering the consequences of its limitations. But what I really did not understand was the difference between the forest world and the hotel world, and their connection. Is this supposed to be something like Wuthering Heights? I understand it's supposed to show that there are two opposite worlds but none of them are of any good. However this was expressed so poorly through screenwriting that everything about the film itself felt very artificial. I did not believe the main character or any other characters to be frank.

Besides, I don't know what this film was. A comedy, a drama? Not that it was a combination, but more like it was none of those yet thrived to be all...

Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)

Cool, really cool

[9/10 · 21 August 2018]

Honestly, I'm a fan of Pink Floyd, even though the Wall is not my favorite album of them. I felt the film, especially because I had seen so much of it in fragments before. The emotions were especially powerful during some animation sequences. Yeah baby, I was being eaten from inside while watching the fight between the two flowers. To me their struggle and symbolism is ever so powerful and beautiful.

The wall was a series of big cries for me. Burst outs of emotions, like a cry from inside the wall. I felt every bit of it, and even though some of the movie sequences were not my favorites, I think I may be thinking too rationally of this film.

Birdy (1984)

An ABSOLUTE masterpiece

[10/10 · 21 August 2018]

One of the greatest films. I lived with it, this film has its place in my heart for sure. I was near to crying at parts because of Birdy's brutal honesty and died of laughter when it ended. The character of Birdy was very captivating, his dream to fly was very well contrasted with the image of a caged man, pushed to the corner of the frame in the celled room.

Maybe it's just me, but I've always loved movies featuring friendship of two male characters. Don't call me sexist, I am a girl myself and I have my reasons. The thing is boys in cultural ways express emotions way less than girls do. And I love it that through this curtain of hidden emotions it is possible to make out a profound love. Like the gorgeous 1+1 Intouchables, a French film that deeply affected me too.

The cool thing about Birdy is that you see how the world destroys a dream, how it rejects anything childlike with its wars and how stupid psychologists pretend they can understand you. But this was achieved not only through showing grotesque war scenes, but also by sharing the joy of the friends with us.

Ten Minutes Older: The Cello (2002)

Discovering

[5/10 · 20 August 2018]

I'm in the age when everything freaky and weird seems captivating and wonderful. Not sure what to call those glasses of mine. One way or another, I discovered Godard, his freakishness attracted me, even though I hated the short film.

Was expecting way more from Bertolucci, but who knows, maybe he just didn't care about the project as much.

It was nice to see a female director amongst those. The talk in the train was quite intellectual, however nothing too artsy or really linked with time about that.

Overall this was a fun collection I guess... I don't know, I probably just liked the idea of a bug's perspective, especially how it died in the end. That was nicely set out.

Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet (2002)

Well... Meh... Thanks

[5/10 · 20 August 2018]

I don't know how to rate this frankly, I mean some of them were cool, some were ok...

I guess the most interesting was to see different interpretations of time, all the way from Herzog's documentary style approach of thousands of years to Kaurismaki's almost real time story. My discovery from all this was Victor Herice, I loved his style as a filmmaker and would be curious to see more of his movies. I think that's what cool about projects like this, they introduce directors.

Not a bad idea. but not a genius one either, I mean such projects have been done before (and maybe better). Paris my love, cine de la cine, etc.

Ivan's Childhood (1962)

I remember...

[10/10 · 20 August 2018]

I saw this long ago, but one thing I certainly remember is that it stroke me yet once more. Ivan's childhood is a bit similar to Andrei Rublev in its cinematic style. I noticed generally that Tarkovsky loves making movies about young boys who are brave but collapsed by the cruelty of the world. Probably something autobiographical in here too as the director himself has said that film is a part of his life and he cannot put a distinction between the two.

And people! This was his first feature. I still remember the sequence when Ivan is in the room and all the scary imagery begins to litter his head, like it does ours as viewers. All the sounds, everything, Tarkovsky is a master of the worlds he creates. He is in a constant dance with our feelings, flinging and shifting them around. And I trust him, I am ready to lose all control and let the film guide me.

Stalker (1979)

Changed me from outside in

[10/10 · 20 August 2018]

This is the film that me think. Truly think. First it was a bore to watch but I would attracted to it afterwards like it was ecstacy or something. I wanted to see that smooth camera pan over the lake and feel the emotion of withdrawal and loneliness. In the future, I made many references to this movie in reading especially, like in Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves. The empty cave of unfulfilled dreams guided my life philosophy. We always want something, don't we? But all we really want is to know what we want, plain and simple. It's a search for purpose.

The imagery here is magnificent, the world is a pathetic fallacy to the inner universe of a person, how those three decide to travel deep within to find some secret that will make all dreams come true. At least that's how I saw it for in my opinion as much as the Zone is an external space, it is equally internal too.

In terms of cinematography, the film was spectacular. Tarkovsky had no unneeded shots, he was not afraid to have long, sometimes devastatingly long periods with nothing really happening. Of course music helped very much to alleviate the boredom, but after starting to gain some wisdom in this life I realized I was stupid to think anything here is boring. It's not boring, you call it atmospheric. Stalker is not a film for impatient moods, it's a film full of meditation, Stalker is a powerful work that's meant to be felt at least during the first watch and only then understood.

Sometimes only the color, or the texture, or the sound or the dialogue would be the prominent feature of the scene, this way, Tarkovsky forces the viewer to concentrate on only one single thing, it's very minimalistic in a sense, and dissociating too.

If I could rate this film 11/10, I absolutely would.