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Futsû saizu no kaijin (1986)
Pretty wild.
There's almost something of a Tetsuo the Iron Man Cinematic Universe (TIMCU), because first there was this short film, The Phantom of Regular Size, which then gave way to the slightly longer (but still short film) The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy (1987), and then finally, in 1988, there was the feature-length Tetsuo the Iron Man. Then, that film received two sequels, so anyone who wants to catch up on the whole series within a short period of time is going to absolutely melt their brain. It's all metallic body horror, dizzying editing, gross-out special effects, and loud clanging noises.
That 1988 film is still the best of the bunch, but watching the shorts as proof-of-concept movies for it can be interesting. This one, The Phantom of Regular Size, isn't as good as Adventures of Electric Rod Boy, and I wish I'd watched it first, but there's still a twisted charm to this extra-short short, and the music and sound effects are as good as ever.
Karakkaze yarô (1960)
Odd, and it fluctuates between dull and interesting.
Yukio Mishima's lead performance in this is bizarre, and I could never work out what awkwardness was intended and what wasn't.
I guess it gives what's an otherwise straightforward yakuza film a bit more flavour, even if everyone else here is less of a wild card, acting-wise. Either they all understood the assignment and Mishima didn't, or Mishima understood it better than everyone else and was doing something genuinely brilliant.
Afraid to Die is also a little slow and repetitive in parts. I've seen better crime-dramas that came out in Japan around this time, and I've seen worse. There's a little here that's odd and intriguing, and a good deal of it just kind of gets the job done.
Ginga no Uo Ursa Minor Blue (1993)
Leaves an impression
This is a strange but overall pretty engrossing fantasy anime short, revolving around a boy and an old man hunting down a giant fish, seemingly travelling into space in the process? It gets pretty strange, but never too messy, owing to its short runtime and the fact there are really just two main characters.
I think it succeeds in feeling like an illustrated children's book come to life. The art style is the best thing it has going for it, and even if it feels a little slight or underdeveloped in other areas, it's a beautiful looking short, and the visuals prove good enough to make this one worth watching.
Subway (1985)
A bit underrated
Not much substance and lots of style, but thankfully the style on offer is pretty great.
An early film from well-known French director Luc Besson, Subway has a plot that's really just an excuse to get the main character into the unique world of people living in and around an underground subway station.
The movie gets a lot of mileage out of its setting and the quirky characters associated with it, like Jean Reno's character, who is quiet, mysterious, likes drumming, and that's about it. I think he might have even just been called "Drummer."
It's an odd movie but it's got charm, some slick action sequences, stylish cinematography, and a decent pace. Scenes are note often than not strung together without much logic or flow, and there's not much to the story or characters beyond the basic premise, but I can't deny it was a pretty fun watch.
#Saraitda (2020)
Sigh of the times
Well, this film was in the right place at the right time, and the fact it finished filming a couple of months before the lockdowns started is kind of funny to think about. Watching it a few years later, I do wonder whether I would've found it all more compelling if I'd seen it in 2020 or 2021, but part of me feels like in the end, it would feel like a just okay zombie movie either way.
I like some of the attempts to modernise a played-out genre, regarding some of the technology the main character uses. Even without the accidental pandemic link, I feel like this would be a pretty good time capsule of the late 2010s/early 2020s, for anyone who decides to watch it some decades from now (I wonder if Netflix will still exist then).
The indirect stuff is more interesting to talk about. As a film, #Alive is just okay. It's competent and doesn't really make too many mistakes, but it's also a bit boring in parts. It's like it never strives to be more than decent or just thoroughly watchable. And it is definitely decent; just not great or exciting. I can't lie- that also makes it a bit disappointing.
Succession: Pre-Nuptial (2018)
The Finale Part I
You really should watch this and the final episode of season 1 as one big final episode, and I imagine most people watching the show a few years after the fact will anyway, just because of how this penultimate episode ends.
Usually, big events in Succession only get one episode on them (even in season 4, when every episode seems to have a focus on one major event, and the stakes have never felt higher), but Shiv and Tom's wedding effectively gets a pair of episodes here, at season 1's conclusion.
The final episode of season 1 the more memorable one, but there's still plenty of great drama in Pre-Nuptial; enough to satisfy as its own episode while expertly setting up the huge amounts of drama to follow in the next episode (season 1's actual finale).
Succession: Prague (2018)
Mostly great
This is essentially the "bachelor party" episode, with most of the best and most memorable moments of the hour revolving around Tom's messy and uncomfortable bachelor party. Kendall and Roman both use it as an opportunity to further themselves, clashing while everyone else along for the ride gets messy in their own ways.
Connor, as usual, kind of gets overlooked and given the fewest opportunities to shine (him taking MDMA should be funnier than what it is here), but that's a nitpick. Shiv continues to become more interesting and is given more to do; if there's a main flaw of the first season, it's that it took a while to find interesting things for her to do as a character, but I like how the last few episodes of the season bring her into the fold more.
Ani*Kuri15 (2007)
Fun chaos
I can't imagine it's easy crafting a short film for an anthology film under normal circumstances, but Ani*Kuri15 makes the directors play on hard mode due to each film only being allowed to reach 60 seconds in length.
This, in turn, makes Ani*Kuri15 also hard to write about, because everything passes by in a flash, quite literally 15 very short films in 15 minutes. But the sensation of watching them all back-to-back is dizzying in a mostly satisfying way. Some don't really find a voice in the time allotted, such are just visual noise and chaos for 60 seconds, but then a few shine through and either tell a story, get a point across, or simply create a coherent feel, and it's impressive to get such things from just one minute.
Even the ones that are messier can be charming or sort of fun, and I feel like most of what's on offer here has value of some kind. Some are definitely better than others (and I'm not busting my brain to try and remember any specific ones right now), but I think Ani*Kuri15 is overall still worth a watch for anime fans (you might well recognize some artstyles and director trademarks from certain films, too).
Bad Boys for Life (2020)
Absolutely confounds me why critics prefer this and the fourth film to the first two.
Kind of cringe. I think the Bad Boys movies minus Michael Bay are just lacking, and I don't like the approach taken for both this one and Ride or Die. Bad Boys for Life was a little more tolerable than Ride or Die, which I thought started kind of boring and then became aggressively bad by the end.
Bad Boys for Life, like that fourth film, makes strange decisions on where to take its aging main characters. There's a tension in trying to keep things breezy, silly, and action-packed while also acknowledging these characters are getting older. It's just not funny enough, and the action just doesn't satisfy like it did in Bad Boys II. To be honest, the action scenes were also a little forgettable in Bad Boys 1, but there was a charm there because it was the first, and because it has that '90s feel to it. It was immature, but in a youthful and sort of fun way.
I placed a lot of blame on the directors when it came to tearing into Ride or Die, but now, I don't want to blame them entirely. I think this third film looks and moves okay; better than the overdone fourth film. Maybe I'd become a member of Team Adil & Bilall if they got their hands on a better script and directed it in the future. The writing for Bad Boys for Life and Ride or Die... not good in either instance. The new characters sucked in Ride or Die, and they suck when being introduced here in Bad Boys for Life.
I just don't like these newer ones. Bay brought some flair to things, and Martin Lawrence and Will Smith were both funnier and more entertaining in those first two. These last two? I'm indifferent at best, and genuinely irritated at worst.
Bad Boys II (2003)
Bay unhinged
They let Michael Bay go nuts with Bad Boys II, and it resulted in a significantly better film than 1995's Bad Boys, which I didn't realize at the time was Bay's first feature film. That first movie is honestly fine; kind of decent for what it is, but Bad Boys II does for Bad Boys what The Road Warrior did for the first Mad Max.
That being said, this isn't as good as The Road Warrior (not many action movies are, in fairness). It's still a bit of a mess, and I think it feels bloated at almost 2.5 hours (it earns the right to be around two hours or even a little longer, which is more than can be said for some action movies, but I still think the runtime is a bit indulgent).
But to get back to the positives, this is an overall more confident movie. The action is a good deal more satisfying (though it unfortunately peaks early on, with a car chase at the end of the first act), and the laughs are bigger. Like the first, not all the humor works, but I was pleasantly surprised by how funny I found parts of it.
I'm still yet to see the third one, but I very much doubt it's better than the second. Fingers crossed I like it more than the first, but I also really didn't enjoy 4, so I'm not super confident.
Yes, I watched these out of order. I guess I'm a Bad Boy. Deal with it.
Bad Boys (1995)
Competent boys
After watching and hating the fourth Bad Boys movie, it felt fair to go back and look at the others. Coming off that one, it's nice to watch the original Bad Boys and find it feels like an actual movie, for lack of a better description. It's very Michael Bay, being nowhere near the best thing he's done but also not the worst, all the while being surprisingly more of a comedy than an action movie.
I get the sense the second one will have more bombastic action, but the broad comedy here worked well enough to make it moderately entertaining. Lawrence and Smith are more energetic and fun to watch here than they were in the most recent film, and there are a few laughs throughout. The films stops and starts in terms of its energy, and not all jokes land, but it's a decent enough watch. Delivers the basics, and that's sort of enough.
Joan of Arc (1999)
Big, messy, but also not bad.
For better or worse, this Joan of Arc film feels like Luc Besson watched Braveheart and said "I want to do zat huh-huh-huh." It's got the bombast, swings, misses, and quirks you'd expect.
I'd call the movie fun because of how explosive it gets, besides that one particularly horrifying part near the start. You don't really see acts like that shown in movies anymore, or nearly as often, and never with that level of horror. Even though the intent is clearly to be horrible, I understand the argument that such scenes go too far.
Milla Jovovich really goes for it with her lead performance throughout. She screams a lot and there is some unhinged camerawork. When she screams and the visuals are unhinged, it can get a bit unintentionally funny. I respect how much Jovovich committed (that stunt where it looked like she fell a pretty long way was impressive), but I don't know if playing Joan of Arc like she's possessed always works. It doesn't really double down on the psychological drama side of things, if that's the approach it wanted to take. Besson gets too caught up staging his Braveheart battles, and it leaves the more introspective side of the story feeling lacking.
But even with the length, this was strangely watchable, for the most part. Some brazen choices and instances of camerawork fit, and others are baffling, but I was definitely engaged more than I expected to be. It's a highly flawed film, and occasionally frustrating, but I don't regret watching it. It's been easy to write a review for, and that's usually a sign that a film has something to offer, or at least is distinct and potentially memorable (again, for reasons both good and perhaps not so good).
The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
It's unique, that's for sure.
If you can somehow avoid seeing a poster for The Valley of Gwangi and also close your eyes during the opening credits, I feel like it would have an all-time great halfway plot switch, one to rival From Dusk til Dawn. I was only watching because of what I knew would come, but it takes literally until the halfway mark for that kind of spectacle to start (yes, I know it's pointless to be vague, but I just still wish it had kept its cards to its chest and treated the switch-up as a genuine surprise. If anyone has the capacity to be surprised, they should try and view it this way).
Until the fun stuff starts, The Valley of Gwangi is super boring; a Western that spins its wheels with fairly lousy production values and flat characters (the opening scene, hinting at some craziness to come, isn't bad). But the second half is cool. I liked what the movie ended up becoming, and the mix of genres on offer here is really something.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)
Miserable
I'm shocked people liked this. I think it's one of the most miserable things I've seen at the cinema in a good while. Bad Boys: Ride or Die tries to convince you it's trying hard, but I wasn't fooled. It's free of anything edgy, radical, daring, or provocative, even though it stylistically feels like it's insisting it is those things. A few blood spurts and some swearing (not nearly as much as earlier movies, from what I can tell) can't fool me. It feels like it goes out of its way to avoid racy humor, has one scene with racists but feels afraid to make them genuinely racist, and refuses to punch up or down with its humor. I just wanted it to pick a direction, even if it meant a film feeling lowbrow or mean-spirited. At least it would be something. Comedically, this is so flat, uninspired, predictable, and corny. I laughed more at the film than I laughed with it, and I barely ever laughed at it to begin with.
The film makes baffling decisions about where to take the two main characters and then never explores those things in interesting ways (sudden panic attacks for one, and a near-death experience in the film's opening moments for the other). There are so many side characters and they're all less interesting than Smith and Lawrence, and those two are already going through the motions here (there are crumbs of chemistry between the two still, here and there, but it's slight). The supporting cast just overwhelms in the back half, once or twice to the point where I briefly forgot this was a Bad Boys film.
It doesn't live up to the title the way you'd want or expect. There is nothing Bad in a good way here; it's just Bad in a Bad way. There's nothing by way of attitude, spark, life, or guts. It's a cowardly, flat, monotonous, cynical, ugly, boring, and woefully lacking film. I hated it. The only thing that saves it from a 1/10 is the fact there were some explosions and brief moments of camerawork in the climax that looked kind of cool. I guess Smith and Lawrence could've been worse, too. They're phoning it in, but they phone it in better than anyone else in the film. It's abhorrent and soul-sucking cinema.
Mommie Dearest (1981)
Mommie Dreariest
I find it weird that this has had a critical re-evaluation, because it kind of sucks and is boring outside of a few high-energy scenes that yes, have camp value. I can appreciate those parts. Faye Dunaway is engaging, and there's fun to be had in internally debating whether she's giving a great or terrible performance. After a lot of backwards and forwards in my mind, I came to the conclusion that yes.
Mommie Dearest is a slog for much of its runtime though, and I feel like you may as well just watch the stand-out scenes and ignore the rest. There are little surprises to be found throughout 90% of the scenes here, and if the filmmakers and/or Dunaway hadn't gone full-ham at a handful of key moments, I doubt anyone would remember this.
So, for the people who call this terrible because of the most over-the-top stuff, I don't entirely agree. Those moments give the film something of a pulse, for better or worse, all the while everything else is a slog. But the group of people who seem to love this film in its entirety, and whoever's responsible for getting it re-classified as a comedy/drama on Letterboxd? Nah, get out of here. This is a clunky biographical drama; I highly doubt the humor was intentional.
Hoshikuzu kyôdai no densetsu (1985)
Not quite legendary, but there's fun to be had here.
Maybe I was expecting a little too much from The Legend of the Stardust Brothers, but can you blame me when it's called The Legend of the Stardust Brothers and is promoted as a Japanese surreal musical/comedy film? I may well have been wanting too much, for it to scratch an itch perfectly, and then when it didn't, a little disappointment set in. But... that's on me, or it could be on the mood I'm in tonight.
Taking a step back, The Legend of the Stardust Brothers is quite good, very funny at times (definitely not always), and most of the music is super catchy. It's really all about the songs, and then there's a little fun to be had by seeing how all the music gets strung together. Spoiler alert: it's barely comprehensible, especially in the second half. If it had spiraled out of control in some other way, maybe it would've resonated more, but I just wasn't loving the anarchy and the energy of this one entirely.
But at the end of it all, that's the nature of cult movies, even more so when the cult movie in question is a musical. The Legend of the Stardust Brothers is one I could come back to a certain point, and may well love more. I think for the time being, I can see myself returning to some of the songs here. It works musically, it's occasionally funny, and there's certainly creativity to be admired.
Was it my kind of messy? No, not exactly, but it could well be your kind of messy.
Barfly (1987)
Some greatness contained within.
I've seen too many movies where one shocked character asks a character who's done something dangerous, "Are you crazy?", but I don't think I've ever heard a character just flatly say "yes," and as casually as Mickey Rourke says it. It's a small moment in a film that has many good small details, but it stuck out.
Barfly hasn't much of a story, instead following one drunken man as he walks and drinks, staggering through life. He's not partying, like in comedies that involve characters abusing alcohol, but neither does he seem to be drinking himself to death, like Nicolas Cage's character in Leaving Las Vegas. It's an interesting and less expected look at alcohol dependency, and the way drinking a lot seemingly every day ultimately changes one's life, usually for the worse, and occasionally for the better (only really in brief spurts for the latter).
But Rourke's character continues to fight through life. He's not likable, but he's interesting. He's a victim to a compulsion for continual drinking, but he doesn't act like a victim, and sometimes it feels like he wants to do what he does. How much agency he has and how much he's subserviant to liquor is interesting to think about.
Mickey Rourke can act. Easy pick, but I remember The Wrestler impressing me the most. Barfly is another performance of his where his physicality is fascinating and admirably committed. I think it's the second-best performance I've seen of his. I've known some kinda drunks in my time and I don't think the mannerisms and the way he moves around a room are too far off the truth. This is not a fun drunk, but neither is it a Leaving Las Vegas "I want death now" drunk. It's something new, and I liked that.
Faye Dunaway is good, I think, but I'll be honest... I'm not sure how credible she is, because I just haven't seen women of that age in that state. She might look a bit too pretty, too, contrasting against Mickey Rourke who looks consistently rough and schlubby throughout in a way I quite respected.
What we have is a sluggish character study of a film, but that central character is good, and Rourke's performance is excellent. Those qualities make Barfly more than worth devoting 100 minutes.
Damage (1992)
A bit perplexing.
I generally like Louis Malle's movies, and think he tends to be pretty under-appreciated as far as French directors go. He seems more consistent than someone like Godard, and his hits hit even harder than Truffaut's, but then I get to Damage and it's probably the first time I felt disappointed by one of Malle's films.
It has some great actors in it, including Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche in the lead roles, with a story that could've been interesting if handled a little better, or differently somehow. Basically, it sees a father striking up an affair with his son's girlfriend, and chaos eventually unfolds as a result. Actually, describing the plot makes it sound stupid, but maybe "intriguing" is the right word. It sounds alarming and far-fetched but I'm sure there was a way to make it work.
Damage doesn't really work though. It moves pretty slowly and I don't think it was particularly well-written either. It doesn't look bad, and I think the actors do the best with what they were given, but they can only go so far with something this under-written. It'd be nice to be able to recommend it to people who like Louis Malle or one or more of the cast members, but I don't think that's entirely possible. It could've been worse, and there are some decent qualities, but it wasn't a very interesting or exciting watch, at the end of the day.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Still great, of course.
I wanted to revisit this after seeing Furiosa for the first time, and before seeing Furiosa for a second time. Fury Road is the better of the two, but like its follow-up almost as much for different reasons. Still, it will be interesting to see if I still feel as strongly about Furiosa after rewatching Fury Road right beforehand.
Fury Road probably has the better action set pieces and the pacing is phenomenal, but I find its prequel more interesting narratively, and I think the characters/performances make more of an impression there. Immortan Joe is phenomenal-looking, but I really feel like Chris Hemsworth's lead villain in Furiosa makes more of an impression, and Tom Hardy's schtick in this movie... I don't want to call it a bad performance, but he goes full Hardy and I'm a little tired of it in 2024. I don't think I minded as much in 2015, but Hardy fatigue started to set in for me post-The Revenant I think. He's a bit one-note as an actor, but he played that note extremely well for a few years there, back in the early to mid-2010s.
Across both films, some instances of the hyperactive editing and janky sped-up footage come close to being overdone, but I think it gets reined in just enough. It gives both these movies a distinctive feel, at least, and while some trends in action movies get copied (like filmmakers trying to replicate the Bourne series handheld/shaky footage or "one-take" action scenes becoming trendy), it's a testament to George Miller's style that no one has really tried to replicate the feel of Fury Road. How could you?
That unique voice means we might well have seen the end of the Mad Max series. There are places to go narratively post Fury Road/Furiosa, but if this duology of sorts is the final chapter, I think that'll feel relatively satisfying. I just don't see how another director could step in when this has basically been Miller's series for almost half-a-century now, across five films. I'd always be open for more, but the man's almost 80 now, so I'd understand if this was the end of the road. What a journey, in any event.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
(Almost) Great
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is one Spielberg film I almost love, but there are some things about it that kind of confuse me and hold me back from loving it. He combines a family drama and a portrait of obsession with a surprisingly gentle spin on the "aliens visiting Earth" sub-genre; one that tends to involve violence, mayhem, and destruction.
I think the family drama side of things hits hard and works, and that rift between a husband and wife is something Spielberg would keep going back to thematically, eventually exploring it most explicitly in The Fabelmans (another film of his I like a lot without loving). And then all the stuff about discovering the aliens and figuring out how to communicate with them, while a tad too slow pacing-wise, is also engaging.
I just don't know how I feel about the film as a whole, as something that tells both these stories and eventually makes them converge. I'm not really sure how I'm supposed to feel about where Richard Dreyfuss' character ends up. There's something I'm missing or something I just don't understand emotionally, and it bugs me, because I do want to be moved by this film the same way E. T. moves me. Both films feel equally passionate, in terms of Spielberg's voice being behind the pair, both films are technically astounding and well-presented (his knack for visual storytelling has been praised to the moon and back, but that doesn't mean it's not worth praising once more).
I get to the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and feel like it's a bit too slow and just isn't something I can connect to emotionally, but the part of my brain that loves seeing good filmmaking is happy, because this is extremely well-made. The effects, the music, the way it looks... all great. I think the performances are generally good, too, even if I don't fully understand the character journeys or how I'm supposed to feel. I have felt a little frustrated both times I've seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind now, but maybe one day it will click. Until then, at least there's still a good deal I can appreciate here.
Suzume no Tojimari (2022)
Strange and visually dazzling; the wild swings it takes generally pay off.
Makoto Shinkai's films are always so shiny.
Suzume got off to a great start, hitting the ground running and then showing a willingness to get strange early on (a cat's introduced as something of an antagonist, and a main character gets turned into a three-legged chair within the first 10 or so minutes). It continues to take unpredictable turns, dialing back the craziness at a point to explore some more serious things thematically. It's not even, but it's ambitious; I can respect the swings it takes at least.
There are some striking and emotional moments throughout, and it can also be fairly funny, mostly early on. There was something missing for me, and I guess it continues to be fairly normal for me to come away from a Makoto Shinkai liking it but not loving it, but it's still good. Good can be good enough.
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Masterpiece
This was my favourite movie as a kid, and now as an adult... yeah, it's still amazing.
All but defined my sense of humour (understatements and ridiculous over-the-too slapstick + destruction), and even now, I still find almost every second of this funny. The way the lead characters are so dry and subdued in a world that basically functions like a live action cartoon never stops being funny.
Then there's the fact it's an action-musical-comedy-crime film all at once, and it all just works. The cast and cameos are insane, the stunts and car chases are incredible, and the music all genuinely slaps.
The pacing is perfect too, and it doesn't drag for a second of it's fairly lengthy 132-minute running time.
You may argue that yeah, the fact that one star died very young, the other turned into a bit of a conspiracy nut, and the director was involved in causing a horrific and fatal accident on set of another film sours the film (as does the fact that almost everyone in this film is now dead, which is weird considering it's not ridiculously old yet), but on the other hand: the antagonists are cops, ignorant rednecks, and literal nazis, so... that actually keeps the Blues Brothers strangely heroic still, even now in 2024.
Heisei tanuki gassen ponpoko (1994)
Messy but admirably unique.
From the director of Grave of the Fireflies comes Pom Poko. The former's a tragic World War II film about the impact warfare can have on the young, while the latter's about raccoons with some distinct anatomy who can shape-shift and they declare war on humanity because the human race is destroying their land. You could almost call Pom Poko a war film as well, if you really wanted to, because of that conflict, but it's tonally very different and has a lot of fantastical elements instead of brutal realism. There are darker moments throughout, but most of it is pretty fun and generally light.
Unfortunately, it's a movie that feels so much longer than it is, and my one big complaint is that the pacing kind of sucks. Much of the story's narrated, especially early on, and it never really settles into a groove or flows, which is a problem when your movie's two hours long.
However, I did really like - and sometimes love - most of the scenes on their own, and Pom Poko was always finding ways to surprise, baffle, and alarm me (in good ways). I just wish all those great scenes blended together a little more satisfyingly. There are so many great, creative ideas presented and depicted throughout, but the film ultimately lacks cohesion.
After Hours (1985)
The Wizard of Oz meets the Book of Job set in New York City.
There are some Martin Scorsese movies that get better with time, or become easier to appreciate once you're older, but some others are just how you remember them. The latter's the case for After Hours, which I really liked without quite loving a decade or so ago, and still really like without quite loving after seeing it at a cinema tonight. Couldn't resist seeing a film like this on the big screen though, because it's the kind of cult movie that probably barely ever gets screened. Still, there was a solid turnout for it tonight, which is always good to see.
I love how this builds, even if it means the first half-hour of After Hours is a little slow and also lighter on laughs. There was a clear attempt made at making each situation a little crazier, funnier, or more awkward than the last, which you definitely appreciate in the back half. Once it gets going, it never really loses that sense of momentum, and the anxious comedy really works during the film's best moments.
I feel like there's a lot to unpack here. It feels denser thematically (or maybe even philosophically) than I remember it being, and doesn't feel like chaos and randomness for the sake of it (but if you want to watch it just for that kind of experience, it does satisfy). It's mid-range Scorsese to me, in the end, but Scorsese's mid-tier stuff is still outstanding, and I think After Hours teeters on genuine greatness. It is definitely one of Scorsese's more under-appreciated films, and also one of his most distinct.
Omoide no Marnie (2014)
Quite good
I've been digging into some more Ghibli films not directed by Hayao Miyazaki lately, and it's been hard to talk about them, because I haven't got much out of them. People seem to like The Secret World of Arrietty and From Up On Poppy Hill, and those films didn't do much for me beyond looking pretty. I was worried about When Marnie Was There, because it was from the same director as the former, but I think it felt like a significant improvement.
I mostly enjoyed this one and found it to work emotionally (for the most) part as well as visually. It was still slow at times, but not to the point where it made me disengage entirely. It's not a top-tier Studio Ghibli release, but it's a good one that works more than it doesn't. It wasn't mind-blowing, but it was a pleasant film, and I was happy to spend some time in this world, more so than the worlds created by those other Ghibli films I've seen over the last day or two.