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Tonari no Totoro (1988)
The most beautiful film ever made.
This film is absolutely beautiful, creative, and innocent. Absolutely loved it.
Kiki (2016)
Beautiful and insightful
This is a beautifully made documentary that takes an in-depth look at the personal lives of those who make up a fabulous and unique community. Very insightful, and a stunning, visually artistic documentary.
Transparent (2014)
Good series, but filled with irritating levels of selfishness.
Let me start off by saying that this is the first television series that I've watched through and through in almost 5 years. It was captivating from the start. However, in each episode you are almost guaranteed to find yourself getting more and more tired of Maura's three children. All of them are caught up in so much utter selfishness, doing extremely immature and irresponsible things with their lives and not seeming to care how the consequences of their choices affect others. While Jeffrey Tambor's character is very likable and natural, the others are just so over the top in their quest to portray the modern generation.
We'll start with Maura's oldest daughter, Sarah. After reuniting with her college lover (a woman named Tammy), she immediately rekindles an affair with her despite already being married with children. She ends up leaving her husband and children behind for this woman and trying to take over the job of changing and remodeling her childhood house so she and her lover can live in it, despite objections from her other siblings. She's an intoxicated, marijuana induced spin on a 40-something woman who's jumping out of the nest into an irresponsible life plan that maybe a 20-year old something with not so much to lose would be better off making.
Then there's Josh, Maura's son. He seems to be the most responsible one of the three siblings, but he still hasn't settled down and basically sleeps with a different woman every night. This has devastating consequences, as the woman he does supposedly love ends up getting pregnant and getting an abortion, and he hasn't got a healthy enough relationship with her to deal with that (since he's so detached from sleeping around so much probably).
Finally there's Ali, the youngest sibling who SERIOUSLY needs to grow up. She's supposedly the embodiment of the new millennials; a lady who doesn't have a job, can't handle money, has no clue what she wants to do with her life, and can't get out of the irresponsible partying phase from her teenage years. Her naivete just comes off as stupid and foolish.
You just wish that these kids would stop being so damn selfish, because it really takes a toll on Maura who is going through a big transition in his life into becoming a completely different gender and has no one there to stand up and really be there to support him. The overwhelmingly self-centered children was really the put off for me. While I think that the series is good, the selfishness was depressing and frankly rather overkill.
Ultraviolet (2006)
Pathetic.
This may take the cake as being the worst movie I have ever watched in my entire life. The plot was stupid, there was no character development, and the awful special effects made my eyes hurt! Everything about this film was stupid and unrealistic. One woman taking down an army of 700+ guards because they all just have really bad aim? She apparently has no real weakness and is just an unstoppable force because the people who made this movie couldn't think of any real character traits to go off of and were just trying to make her look like a bad-ass. And the idea of the movie is stupid too. The society is supposed to be extremely advanced; they can make weapons magically materialize in their hands but still use faulty rubber gloves to handle deadly disease. Okay.
Don't waste your time with this film.
Nightcrawler (2014)
There is nothing quite as satisfactory as watching a film portray people in society as the pigs they truly are.
If you're looking for a film that will do just that, Nightcrawler is the one to see. This movie exposes the perverse nature of human entertainment and competition right in front of us, and while you might think it's something that won't affect you, this movie makes it apparent that no one is truly safe from the hands of those determined to get what they want.
Set in the dumpy outskirts of Los Angeles, the main character, Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), is a lone man who is tight on funds and looking for a job. One night he stumbles upon the scene of an accident, where he witnesses a news crew getting in and filming raw footage to sell to TV stations around the city. He is instantly intrigued. After purchasing a camcorder and police scanner and hiring a broke assistant, he sets out to get his own footage that he hopes he'll be able to profit from as well. Soon he learns that the news filming business is more competitive than it appears. The news stations want more and more dramatic footage for their morning broadcasts, and he will do whatever it takes to get higher and higher towards achieving that.
But here's the catch; Lou is no ordinary man just looking to make his way in the world. It quickly becomes apparent that there's something off about this character. He may act friendly, but behind the mask of that creepy smile lies a person severely lacking in empathy and emotion. The perverse plotting and ultimatums he lays out towards anyone who stands in his way of success shines light into the disturbed mind of a very evident sociopath. The story spins further out of control as Lou demands more and more drama and action to report on, stopping at nothing to be the best in the business, even when it comes to breaking the law. He figures out that if he can beat the police to an area, he can modify the scene to make it look even better on film. Gyllenhaal does a remarkable job at showing the character of a cold blooded villain trying to convince himself and others that he's a normal part of society. The movie really excels at realistically portraying all of the different people and motives that make up modern society, even the less desirable ones.
The downward spiral of this film not only shows the perversity of a sociopath, but of TV viewers themselves. We constantly crave more and more violence and on the scene drama, and the television stations will bring it to us as long as there's a demand. All sorts of ethical boundaries are overstepped for the sake of viewers' entertainment. While Nightcrawler's sociopathic character may be individually responsible for certain events on screen, this movie also showcases the more subtle problem that is society's fault at large. Just how far are we willing to go to see what we want to see?
Nightcrawler is one of those films that's unsettling simply because it's so realistic. Everything on screen could and probably does happen in real life. News crews spinning out stories just to gain ratings, journalists overstepping ethical boundaries to build attention for themselves, all of these things are something that we as society are only fueling with our desire for entertainment. And apparently it takes a true sociopath to bring it all to the table for us.
Overall, I'd give this movie 9 out of 10 stars. The whole plot was totally intriguing, but the end doesn't leave with much closure. Maybe that was the director's intent due to the nature of the disturbing storyline. It just left me wanting to see more. Nightcrawler ended up being a delightfully creepy film to watch, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mindboggling thriller.