Nice duds for partying.

There’s a certain amateurishness to everything here… as if this was made by kids who were telling TV camera people what to do? I.e., lots of zooming, and odd framing, and overly theatrical performances…

Ah, it’s a pro-Korea propaganda movie? I’m guessing ex-Korean people weren’t treated well in Russia… (I mean, Soviet Union.)

Oh, it’s a series of (quite short) … stories? The first one was barely a scene.

Oh, these aren’t stories at all… It’s just one story that’s broken into chapters.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty dull stuff. I mean, the concept doesn’t sound that bad: A teacher kills a girl, and their parent vow revenge. But the parents are old, so the father has to take a new concubine to get a son who can carry out the revenge.

I mean, that’s practically John Wick, isn’t it?

It’s just not done very well. I think I see what the director is going for, but it turns into a kind of … parody of art movies instead.

It’s not impossible that I would have enjoyed this more if I paid more attention, but I sorta lost interest pretty quickly and my mind stated wandering.

So now I’m not quite sure what’s happening.

I’m totally open to the possibility that this is a masterpiece, but I just found it pretty dull.

Месть. Yermek Shinarbayev. 1990. ⚁

Uh-oh! A24!

I know that there are people who are fans of the A24 production company — it’s a whole thing — and I can respect that. I’m a fan of certain record companies, and that’s fine.

But I’ve seen like a handful of A24 movies, and I’m not impressed. They’re generally technically pretty slick (for the budget they have), but they’ve all been pretty… annoying? Like they’re chasing some social media conversation or other.

But perhaps this’ll be awesome.

Uh-oh.

Hey! I’ve been there.

Yeah, this is already pretty annoying. The “hand-held” camera (either simulated in post or done on a tripod but with a lot of operator movement) is so eurgh.

Such symbolic.

SUCH SYMBOLIC!!!

Man, OK, I’m not sure I can do this…. It’s not just All The Clichés, but it’s also All The Boredom.

Yeah, that’s bad:

Although it’s frustratingly clumsy in certain respects, The Inspection is an affecting actors’ showcase in service of some truly worthy themes.

“Worthy”.

It turns out that living rough (and possibly being on drugs?) makes you really fit! Whodathunk! The other soldiers are jelly at the hero because he’s so good at the push ups and stuff.

It’s like a Mary Sue kind of movie… the protagonist (based on the writer, apparently) constantly has people telling him he’s hot and smart and then he’s the best at the sports, too.

And then the movie gets even worse! At this point I’m kinda getting interested in this as a pure train wreck. It’s just ridiculously silly.

It’s… It’s…

And this doesn’t break with tradition.

Meme potential?

Perhaps it’s a recreation.

Oops! What a nerd.

It’s boring. It’s almost enjoyable just for the sheer stupidity of it all, but just almost.

The Inspection. Elegance Bratton. 2022. ⚀

Man, even some newer films have complicated restoration jobs… They only had access to a negative with burned-in English subtitles?

Anyway, this is the second film from the Scorsese box set.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul is famous and stuff now, so I’m guessing this is one of his first movies? And… it’s a documentary?

Whoa.

This is wild… I assume we’re inside the (fictional?) story the first woman up there is telling, but I’m not totally sure. In any case, every scene is just riveting — everything is so tense, even if what they’re actually doing is mostly rather trivial? I’m totally into it.

The film is absolutely riveting for the first two thirds — I mean, it’s a meandering mess, really, but it feels like they’re going to tie things up somehow. It feels really vital. But then we start going into a territory that’s so meta that it wraps back again, and we’re watching “making of” documentary, and that’s not as interesting.

OK, we’re back on track.

For the first two thirds, this movie is a solid ⚅. Then interest dissipates somewhat when it becomes clearer that this really isn’t going anywhere, but is really an improvised movie.

But it’s still pretty fascinating. (And very entertaining.)

I’ve gotten a lot more respect for Scorsese lately. I used to think of him as a guy that did a couple of good movies in the 70s, and then devolved into somebody who generated tedious mobster (OK, that’s a pleonasm) flicks. But I watched After Hours recently, and it’s really great, and you gotta respect somebody who gets financing to restore and distribute a movie like this.

Mysterious Object At Noon. Apichatpong Weerasethakul. 2000. ⚄