Every day at 7:00 PM when I'm sitting on my bed with this here computer on my lap, the light streaks through the window at an angle directly at my face. It's really annoying, and yet I'm too lazy to do anything about it.
Next section of movie reviews are all about foreign films! Including England! Haha, alriiiiight!
Lost In Austen
An English film, not surprisingly about Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. However it isn't the exact story of Pride and Prejudice... instead, a modern day girl named Amanda, head over heels for the book, finds herself in the world of Pride and Prejudice replacing Elizabeth Bennet and still trying to make the story take its rightful course. But things don't really go as planned. At all.
Really sweet romance, and you end up hating Darcy until you love him, just like you're supposed to. Low-ish budget, but there's a nice scene of Darcy with a wet white shirt on, so... heheheh... 4/5
Love Me If You Dare
A French romance, very reminiscent of Amelie with respect to the color and cinematography, as well as the lovely sense of playful awkwardness. Childhood friends Sophie and Julien begin a game of dare that lasts a lifetime. Never backing down on a challenge, the game is eventually played out of spite with really high stakes that could ruin each others lives.
Not quite sure what to think of this film. It's very different, and I think I'm impressed about the story, but I can't believe the characters could be so coldhearted. Still, I really enjoyed watching it a lot, and the ending was really sweet, however confusing. 4/5
Priceless
A French romance where a poor man seeks the affection of a beautiful woman. Audrey Tautou plays golddigger Irene and unsuspectingly preys upon poor bartender Jean. He falls for her. She realizes who he is and rejects him. He turns into a golddigger himself to get closer to her. ... What!
Cute story, pretty pathetic just how in lust this guy Jean is, but I like his character. He tries to do the right thing but ends up doing wrong. Entertaining story, worthwhile to watch. 3.5/5
Tekkon Kinkreet
An anime from the creators of Animatrix, orphans who call themselves Black and White take care of each other in a city named Treasure Town. Gangs and corrupt cops rule this city, but the development of an amusement park threatens to overthrow the balance of power. When Black and White are separated, Black becomes uncontrollable and pursued by the strange megacorporation behind the development.
This film makes you want to want crime to stick around and keep Treasure Town the way it should be rather than to clean up the place and make it a family destination. Very creepy and unusual when it comes to the feel of the place, but really heartwarming when it comes to the relationship between Black and White. Not much of it makes any sense, but you want to keep on watching anyway. Kind of like FLCL. 3.5/5
The Science Of Sleep
I'll just copy and paste what Netflix says, because I haven't seen this flick in a while:
A timid young man can't control the fantastical plots and images of his dream world from intruding into his waking hours in this science-fiction romance from director Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). After a promising new job sours, Stephane (Gael Garcia Bernal) finds new inspiration in his neighbor Stephanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg), releasing the bolder personality of his dreams to connect with her.
I appreciate the indie-ness of this film, the creativity and art, but this isn't at all watchable. I had to stop the movie part way through. I'M SORRY! 1.5/5
How To Be
Robert Pattinson stars in this low budget and awkward dry comedy as a musician named Art who is dumped by his girlfriend and moves back in with his folks. Thinking life is over, he delves into self help books and seeks the professional advice of one of the authors, spending $5k for this author to stay with him in his home and help him discover himself.
Really terrible movie. I wanted to give Robert Pattinson the benefit of the doubt in terms of acting ability, but I just couldn't. I don't know what it is with me, but I have a hard time watching these dry, dark comedies about patheticalness. 1/5
Dear Frankie
A lovely Scottish drama co-starring Gerard Butler! Want to see it already, don't you?
Lizzie is a single mom taking care of her deaf son Frankie who longs to know his father. Frankie's mom fails to communicate to him that they had actually run away from his father and Lizzie wanted to protect him, so she concocted a story that Frankie's dad was aboard the HMS Accra and she forged letters to exchange with Frankie. However, a day comes when the real HMS Accra docks in their hometown and Lizzie chooses to hire a complete stranger to act as Frankie's dad for a day, in order to save Frankie's image of his father.
A really heartwarming story of family. Plus, Gerard Butler is in it. That makes it insta-good. 4/5
Chocolate
A Thai martial arts film whose title hilariously has nothing to do with the movie. A young autistic girl named Zen discovers that she has the uncanny ability to absorb precision martial arts just by watching it. She uses this ability to take back money owed to her mother for costly medical payments and brings up a dark history of her mother and past relationships that should have been left alone.
I couldn't help but laugh at this movie, even if it wasn't at all a comedy. It seemed more like a video game, because there included several "levels", goons, mini-bosses, and a super boss. The emphasis wasn't exactly on plot, but morely on martial arts, which took up the majority of the movie. These nearly endless battles were entertaining, but dragged on. Many of the moves were totally wicked, but I wouldn't recommend watching this if you need more than a kick in the face. 2/5
Paprika
A fantasy anime film dedicated to the concept of dreams. A device used to record dreams is stolen from its research facility and used against the creators of the device by meshing their dreams together in an otherwordly, mindbending nightmare.
This story can be hard to follow at times, but the imagery is so fascinating that you really don't care. There are some animes like this one, Tekkon Kinkreet, and FLCL that don't make any sense but you just want to keep on watching anyway. Take a peek. 3.5/5
On the foreign film queue: The Crimson Rivers, Paris Je T'aime
3 comments:
I LOVE Dear Frankie. It makes me cry every time.
On a different note, I was thinking about perhaps starting a collab blog that would cover various aspects of pop culture (music, movies, books, fashion, etc.) throughout the week and was wondering if you'd like to be a contributor. I dunno, would this ever work? Does it seem dumb?
I'm only asking you and Scarlett what you think of this, granted we could maybe have five people working on it...hmm.
Sweetawesome! I'm waiting to see what Scarlett says about the collab blog idea, but I think it could be fun. :]
chyeah, i didn't like paprika so much. the idea of the movie is great, but i don't think the plot was executed well.
the animation was awesome, though.
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