"This is off to a really bad start", I thought as Riz Ahmed was playing the drums and Olivia Cooke singing in the opening sequence. What can I say, I don't like heavy metal and that beginning made me kind of wish I was deaf so I wouldn't have to bear it. But people whose film opinions I trust loved Sound of Metal, I kept repeating myself, so I kept watching. And soon enough, I couldn't take my eyes off of Darius Marder's film as it became more and more powerful and thought-provoking as well as emotional and heartbreaking.
Despite the fact that I spend many hours a day on Netflix — either watching stuff or adding films to my endless watchlist — I would have never watched nor heard of Radha Blank's The Forty-Year-Old Version if it wasn't for Dell who praised it during Girl Week. And it would have been such a loss on my part as it turned out to be such an honest, intimate, and funny semiautobiographical dramedy.
After seeing other people's numbers, I decided to count how many films directed by women I have seen this year so far and, not to my surprise, it's a mere 27 out of 141. It gets a little better if I'm only looking at 2020 releases as it's 13 out of 35. The good news is that 3 of those films are in my top 4 of 2020, and therefore I'm going to pick them for this Thursday Movie Picks week.
I am a bit of Grinch when it comes to Christmas. While being all grumpy during the holiday season is not my vibe, I don't like the money and time wasted on decorations, I don't like people pretending to be happy when they are not, and I f***king hate Christmas songs. Hence I would have never watched Clea DuVall's Happiest Season were it not directed by a woman and praised by bloggers I follow. And it would have been a loss on my side because, while it has its flaws, it is an engaging, moving and heartbreaking film.
I was reading Allie's post about female directors of 2020 when I realised two things: first, I haven't seen a lot of 2020 releases; second, and most importantly, the majority of those I've seen were directed by men. So, since both she and Brittani praised Miranda July's Kajillionaire, I decided to start with it. And I am very glad I did as the comedy-drama is just as brilliant and touching as I was expecting it to be.
We are kicking off the month of December with a pretty vague theme as it's not said what kind of adaptations. Now, if you are not new here, then you know I am not a fan of musicals. It's just that people singing and dancing all of a sudden for no reason whatsoever doesn't really compel me. There are, however, some exceptions and over the years I've fallen in love with several of these films. So without further ado, here are my picks for the week.
I'm surprised by how fast November went by considering how much I struggle to find things to do as I have plenty of free time these days. Even more so when November weather is peaking and going for a walk is not fun at all.
It has been so long since I added Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break on my watchlist that I completely forgot what the film was about and went it knowing only one thing, that it was about surfing. So you can get my surprise and then disappointment when the film turned out to be a predictable action-crime thriller.
There is nothing I love in films like the delivery of a powerful monologue. You know, one of those moments when an actor completely takes over the scene and has you glued to the screen, listening carefully to every single word of the speech.
Happy Thanksgiving my American readers! By the way, how is this the last Thursday of the month?! It feels like November just started! I am kind of happy though because I can finally talk about some foreign TV series I love. And since Dell is hosting the Girl Week Blogathon this week and wasn't able to pick series about women, for each show I'm picking my favourite female character. So without further ado, here are some shows you should check out.
I was about to watch yet another Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode when Netflix played the trailer to If Anything Happens I Love You. I had never heard of it before so, before venturing into another dreadful film, I googled it. While the score was high — 8/10 on IMDb —, it was the storyline that convinced me I should have given this short animated feature a chance. And I'm glad I did because it's one of the saddest and heartbreaking and yet beautiful and touching shorts I've ever seen.
From a very young age, I've always been fascinated with villains as I always found them to be the most compelling characters and therefore I almost always rooted for them. There's a problem with villains though, everyone talks about male villains. After all, most movies are made by men for men, hence there's always a male hero and a male villain. Thankfully, some films and TV series revolve around women as well, so for my first entry in Dell's Girl Week 2020 Blogathon I'm able to talk about my favourite female villains, both from the big and the small screen.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
I'm so glad October ended because, although it wasn't as distressful as September, it was mentally exhausting.
Despite it being widely praised by fans of the genre, I was never compelled to watch Gore Verbinski's The Ring as I always thought it'd be just another mediocre to say the least American horror. But it's a must-see, apparently, hence I picked it as my Blind Spot film for the month of October. And I wasted two hours of my day off to see it, hours I could have spent watching two episodes of Netflix's Dark, which is scarier, far more tense, suspenseful and twisted than this dreadfully boring flick.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
Yet another month has come to an end which means a television edition of the Thursday Movie Picks series. And since it's October, we're asked to pick horror series. Not my strongest suit, I must say, as I'm not really fond of the genre and therefore I don't usually watch these series. But thanks to Netflix, I can join with some great series.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
Just like Trading Places, Coming to America is one of those films that airs a lot on TV here, one I've been feeling like I have to watch for more than a decade and yet keep avoiding every single time as I've always imagined it to be just another dumb Eddie Murphy film. Upon watching it, I sadly have to say my intuition was right as the film is exactly that, just another dumb Eddie Murphy movie, one I, unfortunately, didn't find particularly funny.
I always get a little bit excited when a Marvel actor — Tom Holland in this case — decides to work on something more serious and demanding as it goes to show whether he/she has talent or not. Netflix's latest original, The Devil All the Time, doesn't only star Holland; Robert Pattinson, Haley Bennett, and Eliza Scanlen are also in it, three additional reasons I couldn't possibly overlook the film despite the underwhelming reviews. And if like me, the cast is the pretty much the only reason you want to see the film, you're in for a treat as, while the film itself is a bit tedious, the actors are downright terrific.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
Between sleeping, working and numerous trips to the mechanic’s, I don’t really have a lot of time to write so this is going to be another short Thursday Movie Picks post. As you can tell by the title, we are dealing with bands this week — and since my brain isn’t functioning properly lately I had to google my way through it.
Like most of us, I became aware of Cuties (French: Mignonnes) because of Netflix’s infamous promotion that made it look like some sort of paedophilia film. I was utterly disgusted and almost on the point of cancelling my subscription but then Film Twitter exploded, saying the poster and plot did not represent the film one bit. Netflix soon apologised, changed poster and plot, and I, having read positive reviews, decided to give the film a chance. And you should too, despite the backlash it’s still getting on Twitter, Maïmouna Doucouré’s debut feature is a great coming-of-age that makes social commentary against the sexualisation and exploitation of young children.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
There's one thing that has helped me improve my English tremendously, watching films in English as opposed to watching them dubbed in Italian like I grew up doing. This is a technique I've been using to learn German too lately and, as this week we are asked to pick foreign language films, I'm going with some great German-language films.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
I don't know about you but I find domestic thrillers to be of the most unsettling and scary kind as they are more likely to happen in real life, and you feel like you're living one whenever you hear a weird noise in the middle of the night. It's usually nothing other than a fervid imagination though. It's not the same in the fictional world of films where people often find themselves in horrible situations. Without further ado, here are my three picks for this week's Thursday Movie Picks.
Remember when a month ago I said July had been very good to me and would probably be my favourite month of the year? Well, August outdid July as not only my health is still on track but Bayern won their sixth Champions League and their second treble on the 23rd and I'm still over the moon. I don't think the excitement is ever going to leave me.
Mrs. Doubtfire is one of those films I've been meaning to watch for years but was never compelled enough to watch because of its silly premise. It is quite a beloved comedy though and it stars the talented Robin Williams so I decided to watch it for my Blind Spot series this year. Unfortunately, the film didn't live up to the hype as it turned out to be a quite unfunny, ridiculous and predictable film.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
With prequels becoming more and more popular on the small screen, it was only a matter of time before we talked about them in a Thursday Movie Picks. And here we are and since there are so many bad things happening at the moment I'm going with three great series.
Although The Tourist was far from being a good film, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) is one, if not the best German film, a stunning and intense character study that authentically portrays the life in 1980s East Germany. This and the several Oscar nominations — Best Foreign Feature and Best Cinematography — are the reasons I really wanted to see his latest film, Never Look Away (Werk ohne autor), which I sadly avoided for more than a year because of its runtime of 188 minutes. What a silly reason to avoid a film that not only I was able to watch in one sitting but that engaged and intrigued me from start to finish as it is a poignant, astonishing work of art.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
I started rewatching 28 Days earlier this month but I was so tired and unfocused I had to stop and, because of my Iñárritu marathon, didn’t have the time to finish it. So for this week’s Thursday Movie Picks, as we are asked to pick female buddy films, I’m going with three films starring Sandra Bullock.
Someone posed a question on Twitter not long ago, a question I didn't have an answer for as it asked to name a director we liked every single movie from. I first thought of Steve McQueen but then remembered how he ruined it with the good and yet flawed Widows. Definitely not Christopher Nolan as I'm yet to see some of his films and didn't adore all of those I've seen. And the same goes for the amazing Taika Waititi as I'm yet to watch Boy. It's only after rewatching Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) that it hit me, it's Alejandro González Iñárritu. In fact, the Mexican director is the only one that has made me feel an incredibly wide range of emotions throughout the years, mostly pain, with films that if are not masterpieces come very close to it. For his 57th birthday, which is today, I embarked on the journey of rewatching all of his films, and attempt to write something decent to celebrate him.
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
The heat has damaged the few remaining brain cells I had so no introduction for this week's Thursday Movie Picks. It's not like there's much to say other than it's about school. Anyway, here are my three picks for the week. I know, I know, I'm probably picking wrong films but they all are set in high school. Anyway, stay hydrated!
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves
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A weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves
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