vonFiedler I'm a little shocked you didn't like Darjeeling. It's probably my favorite work that Anderson created. The issues that family, brothers (sisters), and parents all share. It's a story of grief; shown with the kid dying scene but it parallels (to be fair we're not shown) that Brody's character can't save people. He was the only one there when his father died, he was the only one there when the child died, he isn't there when his wife is giving birth. He's supposed to be a character of wrong place, wrong time.
I don't know if you have any more criticism of the film, but aside from The Grand Budapest Hotel I think it's one of the more underappreciated works that he's done.
A 5/10 is the minimum rating for me liking a movie, though maybe I'm being lenient. It's certainly a colorful production like the rest of his films, but something felt very lacking the whole time. Perhaps
this article explains it best. Not that I was teeming with liberal rage or anything, but even though watchable, these issues easily made it his shallowest film for me. Their mother leaves them again, they put a feather under a rock, and that's supposed to be when things turn around? I don't feel it. I've got an estranged family myself and nothing in this film felt real to me. There's also the actors. I can't think of a movie where I've actually seen Adrian Brody do a good job (and Brodyquest doesn't count). It's not a coincidence that Wes Anderson's best movies were made after he stopped using Owen Wilson so much. And I don't know the third guy, and certainly won't recognize him in the future. Meaningless cameos by Bill Murray and Natalie Portman do nothing.
Porco Rosso (1992) 7/10
My last Miyazaki film. Fits in with other fun films of his like Castle in the Sky and Castle of Cagliostro. One of his wishy-washier endings, but still a good ride.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) 4/10
Personally I really liked Scott Derrickson's remake. While not perfect in its need for a big cgi monster, most of the film was very subtle and thought-provoking, with an excellent cast. The only thing that really could have hurt the remake is if it was less smart than the original, but nope, the original is just fascist nonsense. The alien spends most of the movie saying he wants to have this discussion with Earth's smartest people, then just tells them about the police state his race has enacted and that they'll blow Earth up if we don't conform to their standards. Ok.
Winter's Bone (2010) 4/10
I love Jennifer Lawrence but like a lot of actresses I'm not in a hurry to see all of her films, because by most accounts this is the only good one from her early days. And like, it's fine. She does a good job. But watching Red Sparrow earlier this year, which was probably a worse movie, still was somewhat successful at being fine. As a drama, what am I supposed to take from this? That the Ozarks suck? Also plagued by two-scene characters.
The Great Ziegfeld (1936) 2/10
Okay, now we're at the point where best pictures are forgotten for a reason. Esp coming from the age of the spectacle film. This type of movie just ages wretchedly. Think about it. I wouldn't go see a Follies. And if I wanted to see something live, I wouldn't want to see a movie recreation of it. And even by the end of the film, no one in the story wanted to see Follies anymore. And if you came for plot or character development in between the spectacle, abandon all hope. The best thing I can say about this film is that it's the last 3 hour film I need to see on this list.
Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) 4/10
It's time we stop giving Aardman Animations a free pass. Yes, watching Wallace and Gromit, very short films, was better than doing classwork even after the 5th time the teachers showed them to us. But
Chicken Run sucked.
Early Man sucked. And when you see what Studio Laika is doing, how do you keep giving praise to just anyone who happens to be doing stop motion animation? I think if I had kids, this wouldn't be a terrible distraction for 80 minutes. But I'm not going in for 80 minutes of slapstick and farts.
F/SN: Presage Flower (2017) 6/10
A lot of changes in this for the sake of it being a film, and they actually work really well. The writer knew what details to hone in on and what new details to insert, probably because it's written by the guy who wrote every episode of Fate/Zero. Yes, this is better than Unlimited Blade Works. Too bad it's still just a series of movies. It never feels rushed, but as a result, it feels too slow to be a movie. And of course there's nothing here for anyone who hasn't seen UBW, as it assumes you know a lot about the basics and the first three days already (let alone someone who hasn't read the novel -
read the fucking novel). Hard to say yet how censored it will be. Obviously sperm worms were out, but while there is some gore, there's already one big horror scene that got glossed over. Most unfortunately, the best scenes in this part of Heaven's Feel, Shirou's talks with Illya, are strangely absent. Probably moved to the next film, but it certainly does this one no favors. There's a lot of good here, but does it stand as a movie? No. Just give me a 6 cour show with this writer already.
Cavalcade (1933) 1/10
For some reason the copy I have of Cavalcade had an audio commentary set to play by default. And before I could turn it off, the first thing the guy said was, "This won best picture, believe it or not". I don't know how I can top that in terms of insulting this shit film.
