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VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2020 list

So this is what an Albert Brooks -movie is like, huh? Sardonic punchlines that function as surprising answers to simple questions served by people occasionally a bit too good for the parts they're playing. Though I really dug the world in this movie (though it feels a bit silly for these higher beings to expect humans to learn from their past experiences when they literally wipe them off their minds), the characters didn't really grab me in any particular way. Streep is a bit too swooning over Brooks who is very... Brooks, and Rip Torn is just that level of self-righteous asshole where you admire it but you don't live for it. So yeah, though a fair amount of the jokes work well (that job interview reveal is some chef kiss -level stuff) there's also stuff that doesn't (looking at you, wacky pratfall montage) and I'd be hard pressed to say this really connected with me in an emotional way.

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2020 list

Ah, sometimes it's just a joy to watch a film adaptation of a book that has such a strong authorial voice ringing throughout it. Though especially Ryder and the rest of the cast do an admirable job of bringing this book to life, Patty Dann's prose comes through. Sure, it's partially because there is literal narration here, but that's fine for a film of this type. The intentionally ever so slightly meandering pace and slice-of-life attitude on display make it seem natural and it's a primary driving force of a lot of the film rather than a halting moment. I especially enjoyed the occasional use of the narration as response to dialogue while Ryder's character actually remained silent. It's a good way to heighten that feeling of not finding people trustworthy, which is a key issue to most of the characters in this film. Another thing I really, really dug was the slightest vibe of magical realism in how much this family moved around, ate literal trash for years and how gung-ho Ryder was about this whole nun-thing until her first crush came on screen. This fairytale-aesthetic is almost strong enough to not feel icky about 15-year old Ryder fawning over a 26-year old, but sure as hell not enough given the lengths that relationship goes in this movie. A stain on an otherwise extremely affable film. PS. This was called "My Mom's a Mermaid!" in Finland and I can't believe they did that. So many people must have been so upset about renting a Cher-movie with that name and then getting this quaint family drama set in the 60s.

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 4 items to their collection

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 3 items to Film Journal 2020 list

4 years, 11 months ago

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Elokuvapäiväkirja 2020 (141 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to their collection

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to Film Journal 2020 list

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo rated House II: The Second Story

 House II: The Second Story 4/10

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2020 list

Howdy, you sure can see that they wrote this script in half a month and without Fred Dekker. It has swanky effects and fun ideas but just bringing them to life isn't enough to make them, well, funny, so you're stuck with a movie where like one in every ten jokes work and whenever the jokes or action aren't on screen it feels egregiously slow.

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to their collection

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to Film Journal 2020 list

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to their collection

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 2 items to Film Journal 2020 list

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo rated A Serial Killer's Guide to Life

 A Serial Killer's Guide to Life 4/10

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2020 list

Ugh. I wish this was better because it is trying to say quite a lot about the general concept of self-help gurus and life coaches and the development of self-image. Unfortunately it goes at it with a hackneyed approach to the material as a third of the run-time is spent watching "kooky gurus" do their shtick with one character staring very displeased at the goings on, giving it an overall vibe of "aren't these people stoooopid and aren't you smart for thinking that" which is honestly one of the worst feelings a movie can try to illicit. When it barely lands a single joke in the entire movie the mix becomes somewhat unbearable, so, despite a good eye for visuals and a real good lead performance and... I mean, I can see the heart in the messaging, but it's clouded by the snooty attitude.

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo rated One Cut of the Dead

 One Cut of the Dead 6/10

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2020 list

Look, I'll get this out of the way: The super optimistic tone this movie strikes at it's climax feels exceptionally unearned, and hinders what could work, even as an optimistic finale, to something akin to a Takashi Miike budgeting solution where the movie just turns into a joke because there's no money left but hey let's do it with style. Except here the style isn't really there for that part. But beyond that (to me major, to you possibly very minor) gripe, I wouldn't dare yuck anyone's yum on One Cut of the Dead as this is maaaaybe the most mechanically savvy and fulfilling films I've seen in a long time. Yeah, that isn't a descriptor you'd usually use for a movie, because, well, it's a movie, not an intricate Swiss stopwatch, but sometimes a movie forces you to view it on a mechanical level. It's very hard, but this one does it effortlessly, and through that endeavor it also rewards you. A lot. Consistently. It's really fun in a way movies rarely are.

4 years, 11 months ago

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Watched in '20 (90 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago

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4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 3 items to Film Journal 2020 list

4 years, 11 months ago

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Movies I Watched in January 2020 (22 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago

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Seen in 2020 (90 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago

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Mack's Movie Diary 2020 (40 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago

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Miika's Movie Diary - 2020 (134 movies items)

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DVDecember 2019 (36 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago

VierasTalo added 1 item to Film Journal 2020 list

Being a person whose job for a few years involved dealing with people in a way that made them do things they didn't always want to do (admittedly in a much less intense and less violent environment than this film!) I found myself intrigued by the opening hour of Road House as Swayze goes about converting a crappy bar to a fancy bar by teaching bouncers how to treat customers. It's a thread dropped a bit too soon to engage with a traditional evil carpetbagger -story where said carpetbagger holds the whole town under an iron grip and this Yojimbo-Swayze is the only one who can take him down. The film receives interesting flavor towards the end as Swayze's character ostensibly becomes more and more of a sociopath despite everyone urging him in the other direction. The primal nature that is unearthed is treated by the film as a virtue in the end which is a bit of a simplification to say the very least, but, as with most of it's themes, it doesn't engage with it much. The climactic action scene where Swayze dispatches the local goons in a cat-and-mouse game in a big mansion is straight out of a more over-the-top 80s movie with the oneliners and all, and doesn't entirely work in context. Before that the repeated barfights are fun enough though, especially since they're usually initiated by some real funky dialogue – occasionally even said by Terry Funk himself! "Heard you have balls big enough to fill a dump truck" and all. Women are either trophies, commodities or trouble, but I did appreciate Kelly Lynch functioning as a voice of reason towards the end (one that the film nor it's characters want to listen to).

4 years, 11 months ago

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Watched in 2020 (284 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago

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Watched films in 2020 (97 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago

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Leffapäiväkirja 2020 (7 movies items)

4 years, 11 months ago