Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
Written and directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Starring Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsau, James Hong, and Jamie Lee Curtis
139 minutes, Rated R
“You’re living your worst you.”
“Memories are meant to fade, Lenny. They’re designed that way for a reason.”
Strange Days (1995)
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Glenn Plummer, William Fichtner, and Vincent D’Onofrio
145 minutes, Rated R
Readers of this entry should be warned that it contains numerous mentions of sexual assault. Minor details of the memories depicted have been changed to protect the privacy of the people involved.
Continue reading ““Memories are meant to fade, Lenny. They’re designed that way for a reason.””“We must keep on living.”
Drive My Car (2021)
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Written by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe
Starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, and Peri Dizon
179 minutes, Unrated
Drive My Car is a film that was released in 2021. I didn’t see it until 2022. As I sat through the closing credits and pondered the immensely powerful cinematic treasure I had just seen, I wished that this film would have been available to me in 2002. I could have used this movie back then.
If you are unaware of this film, then you must not be the sort that pays attention to the Academy Awards, because Drive My Car has been recently nominated for four Oscars. A three-hour subtitled foreign film, it is the official submission of Japan in the Best International Feature Film category, but it has also achieved nods for Best Director (Ryusuke Hamaguchi) and Best Picture. The screenplay, adapted by the director and Takamasa Oe from a short story by Hiruki Murakami (one of my favorite living novelists), has been honored in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay.
If you are aware of this film, but have not seen it, I caution you from moving forward until you have. This entry will contain many, many SPOILERS. Ordinarily, I would not spoil a movie this new, but I simply cannot write about why this film has spoken to me so profoundly without divulging plot details. This is, to me, a very special film.
Continue reading ““We must keep on living.””“So it goes.”
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time (2021)
Directed by Robert B. Weide and Don Argott
Written by Robert B. Weide
Starring Kurt Vonnegut, Robert B. Weide, and others
127 minutes, Not Rated
“Every time I see you, you’re buying a chicken.”
9 1/2 Weeks (1986)
Directed by Adrian Lyne
Written by Patricia Louisiana Knop, Zalman King, and Sarah Kernochan
Starring Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Margaret Whittin, David Margulies, Christine Baranski, and Karen Young
117 minutes, R
Continue reading ““Every time I see you, you’re buying a chicken.””
“Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud”
KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978)
Directed by Gordon Hessler
Written by Jan Michael Sherman and Don Buday
Starring Peter Criss, Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Anthony Zerbe
96 minutes, PG
“I promise myself I’ll fall in love with the first woman who walks in here.”
Chungking Express (1994)
Written and Directed by Wong Kar Wai
Starring Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Faye Wong, Takeshi Keneshiro, Valerie Chow Ka Ling, and Jinquan Chen
102 minutes, PG-13
Continue reading ““I promise myself I’ll fall in love with the first woman who walks in here.””
Eastwood Reviews — #11
“Al, you ever find yourself being completely smothered by someone?”
Play Misty For Me (1971)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Written by Jo Heims and Dean Riesner
102 minutes, rated R
It should be noted that while I do believe very strongly in the wonderment of an audience experiencing a movie’s twists and turns on their own, these reviews will not shy away from spoilers if they are necessary to discussion of the film.
Quick rating: 4/5
“Looking back is a bad habit.”
True Grit (1969)
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Written by Marguerite Roberts
Starring John Wayne, Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Jeremy Slate, Robert Duvall, Strother Martin, and Dennis Hopper
128 minutes, G
Eastwood Reviews — #10
“The corporal seems to be having an effect on all of us.”
The Beguiled (1971)
Directed by Don Siegel
Written by John B. Sherry and Grimes Grice
105 minutes, rated R
It should be noted that while I do believe very strongly in the wonderment of an audience experiencing a movie’s twists and turns on their own, these reviews will not shy away from spoilers if they are necessary to discussion of the film.
Quick rating: 4.5/5
Cinematic Rabbit Hole 