Wild Tales/Savage Tales/Relatos Salvajes - six servings of cold dishes.

Oscar nominated dark comedy revolving six tales of vengeance. Each short film is wildly different from one another. The subject matters are greatly diversified, from simple road rage to civil disobedience to personal grudge. Each segment is precise with superb storytelling pacing. Just right on point and not overstaying its welcome. It's a lot more light hearted than your usual brooding revenge angle. I truly enjoy the unpredictable twist on each story that has to offer.

Innocent joyride took for a worse turn when the owner of the car is more than just a sheriff. Effective and on point given the scope of the movie. There are some degree of smartness in how the movie plays out. It's not Coen Brothers good and yet not in anyway bad at all. Kevin Bacon is on the money playing a shady bad guy desperately needing his car back. Watchable!
Now it all boils down will the film director Jon Watts able to migrate successfully to helm the next Spiderman movie, at the minimum he knows how to rack-up tension build up and a degree of dark humor. Can't really tell how good will he be when doing big action scenes or will he relegate to a "yes man" cliche?

Tale of tales - The lesser known fairy tales

Before Brothers Grimm compiled the famous fables we came to know of, there are darker original fairy tales told differently elsewhere. Tale of tales adapted 3 such tales from the original writer of Rapunzel,Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Albeit the goal here is not to revisit such familiar fables. Matteo Garrone the director of Gomorrah chose to present 3 unfamilliar stories and you can tell how the other iconic iteration might draw inspiration from these lesser known tales. It's an alternative to the disney kind of movies, and it can veer off into darker territory without compromising it to a mainstream filmmaking exercise. Overall pretty decent, just a tad too long in some areas. The art direction and cinematography not too shabby either.

Goodnight Mommy - A minimalist psychological thriller

A confident co-directing team at work here. The premise is just enough to get you invested with a very minimum set-up. You just piece together the story as trails of breadcrumbs slowly became visible. It even manages to flip your expectation of the characters during the last third act. Just do not let the trailer to mislead you to a conventional demon or creature possession. It's a lot more psychological than supernatural and more importantly, nothing is what it seems. It's an art film above all than your typical James Wan farcical cliche jump-scare craps. Quite enjoy this film a lot.

Mississippi Grind - Compulsive gamblers grinding their dreams.

This is your true character study of people lost in life. Ryan Reynold strongest acting to date and goes without saying Ben Mendelsohn is the king of this type of role. The dynamic of push pull effect they had on each other is the basis of the story. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey narrative that matters. The mesmerizing pairing of the two leads kept you watching. How bad it will end or for once they catch a break in life?

Dope - A really charming coming of age movie.

Great soundtrack together with putting a new spin on angst-y teenagers growing up in the real world. What set this apart is the great chemistry between the leads and a somewhat crafty plot-line. To a degree the movie will remind you a bit of Edgar Wright or earlier Guy Ritchie visceral visual style and crunchy editing. This is a much better movie than Me, Earl and the dying girl.

Cartel Land - The drug war gets real.

Under the guise of following 2 vigilante organization or self appointed militia on their stand against drug cartels. The unflinching street war fully captured on camera itself. While you are taken in with the personalities making these amazing feats, the last one third of the narration fully blew your expectation as it exposes the fruitless action they are having on the people behind the drugs itself. There's a big twist in the end and it's rare to see this kind of execution in a documentary. You can't help but felt defeated.
Love to see how Sicario would stack up to the impeccable story being told here.

The Gift - Not your cheesy stalker movie.

Don't believe what you saw in the trailer cause this thriller has way more to offer. Just when you think it's gonna go through a cliche direction, it pulls the carpet off your feet. Intelligently written and well acted. Personally it's as mind blowing as Gone Girl in terms of the shock values just that it does not have the budget and bigger draw of stars in it. Say after watching this movie I wouldn't mind Jason Bateman take on more of these against type roles. Do hope Joel Edgerton will continue to be more active in the film director's chair. FYI, he was already an established writer and film director before he starts taking acting role in Hollywood. Can't wait to see him in Black Mass.
Avoid trailer #2 at all cost because of a big spoiler in it.

The most interesting character to watch for me in Sicario is Benicio Del Toro. Although Emily Blunt is the top billing star in it, Del Toro just kills it for me personally. His minimum dialogue performance just speaks volume about the character he's playing. Many criticisms were made on the script switching gear to Alejandro just does not bother me one bit. Kate just out of her depth in the world where Josh Brolin operates. Her purpose in the story is that "fish out of the water" surrogate for the audience to follow. Just don't see her becoming the conventional heroine to save the day. At the end of it, you can't win the war on cartels just like how Josh Brolin sums it up in the movie.

Personally have no issue with the revenge angle as it ties back to the endgame of unifying different cartel under one roof and just a motivation point for Alejandro's characterization. That's how I see it. To each their own.

Beasts of No Nation - Almost a good movie

Idris Elba and the child actor performance are Oscar worthy, but unfortunately the story does not catch up with it. The first half is gripping and evokes those slumdog millionaire moments. When Agu came to his own in the military camp, it falls back to the same old dickensian story structure. Losing a best friend, seeing the pretension of your idol, questioning your doubt, etc...I was letdown it does not do anything new besides what was already reported on the subject. If you are not aware of the child soldiers in the blood diamond conflict, it's still a good movie to watch just that it does not do anything new with it.

This post has been edited by 6so: Oct 17 2015, 03:26 PM

Youth - Michael Caine greatest performance ever.

Either someone deliberately leaking this gorgeous and amazing film to drum up interest or christmas just came early. It's not your sobbing or serious type of story, just a pure cinema look at life. Caine as a retired conductor perfectly fine with leaving his life behind with clock ticking away from him. His best friend Keitel is the opposite where he still believes in the best has yet to come. While there are vacationing on their annual holiday in Switzerland, a series of interesting people comes in and out of their life. There are many conversations of life or wisdom sharing among the many set-pieces playing out. It has that playful and almost whimsical tone to the film. It's like watching a more grounded Wes Anderson film without the quirky parts. There's a scene involving a miss universe is pure heaven and Caine rousing performance in one scene will stop your heart beat for a second. Good to see Harvey Keitel still at the top of his game and that Jane Fonda cameo is too good. Paul Dano did a really funny scene that you won't see coming at all. Easily my top three of the year.
The film perfectly encapsulates a quote from Fellini:
There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.

The look of silence - Humanity sucks.

The companion piece to the acclaimed The act of killing. Again, this documentary will ruin your day due to the unbelievable amount of apathy we can do to each other under a terrible circumstance. On a personal note, this is even more devastating than the first one when they shift the narrative perspective to the victim.

This post has been edited by 6so: Oct 27 2015, 03:35 PM

Fox simply not gonna surrender FF property when Marvel pulling dick moves on Fox's movie properties, they are systematically killing fan favorite characters of x-men or converting Reed Richards to be the hated villain and limiting merchandise licensing of said properties. Perlmutter already caused the ties with Fox to blood feud proportion. The effort to relaunch FF under marvel banner just unyielding, especially the lackluster pop culture footprint it has right now. On the hand Marvel desperately need the catalogue of FF cosmic characters like Silver Surfer or Galactus to be in the GOTG universe. Dr Doom is versatile enough to be the big bad on any of the current Marvel movies. They may come up with new condition to do cross studio appearance like Sony or joint production like Interstellar or Fox just flipping the bird back at Marvel. Fox can afford to tanked a movie or two, they still have other cash cow franchise.

GITS:The new movie - A competent prequel.

There were a series of GITS Arise movies that culminate to this latest release as a reboot exercise. The Arise movies are rather uninspiring and going nowhere with its narrative or lack of overarching story. So IG production manages to put in more money in animating larger set-pieces this time around and give it a direct link to the original Mamoru Oshii movie. Overall a rather surprisingly good feature with some high concept action sequences. It's not as philosophical as the original but makes up with enough care to justify it as a movie on its own.

This post has been edited by 6so: Nov 12 2015, 09:41 AM

The Assassin - The beautiful nothing.

The movie itself highly reminiscent of WKW's "Ashes of Time". Instead of a straight adaptation, it delves on capturing the ambience or atmosphere aspect of the chinese folklore tale. You don't get the full picture of the story, just a glimpse of the Nie Yinniang story. To be honest, I couldn't make out what is at play beside the cinematography very pretty to look at. It's way too esoteric to decipher the direction it wanted to go with the movie. Maybe I'm not familiar with the source material to understand enough of the story. Abstract as it may of "Ashes of Time", bare minimum there are narrative arcs to give you a sense of what is going on.

Amy - The best documentary of 2015.

Like Senna, this documentary felt a lot more like watching a fully formed movie instead of a reportage or expose. The narration strictly uses archival footages with very minimum talking heads. The editing and VO truly capture her presence in the film. The first five minutes, you get to see a teeny 16 year old belting happy birthday like a real seasoned jazz diva. It simply does not compute with what you are seeing on the screen. Beside her scandalous image, the documentary captured time and time again of her magical jamming session. She's that real deal who holds so much talent that is so envious is an understatement. While her downfall is your typical troubled artist who couldn't cope with overnight success, there are equally genuine good people around her that doing their utmost to help her. It's really sad that she couldn't get ahead of the bad situation with terrible men in her life. At the end of it all you gained a deeper respect and appreciation of her albums. Totally Oscar deserving masterpiece.

Room - Prepare to have lots of tissue paper.

Room is a soul affirming film that deserved every buzz it has garnered. Brie Larson is amazing in it with her impossible hopeless situation. The child actor performance is heart wrenching to watch with how much you are rooting to see him turn out ok at the end of the film. The film does not over explained story details, but the actors did an amazing job conveying all the nuances solely from their performances alone. There were really emotional scenes that gonna beat you down with equal amount of uplifting moments that let you see hope at the corner. They did a great job pivoting the narration from the young boy's perspective so the tragedy is much easier to stomach through. It's not the cliche/cheap emotionally manipulative tearjerker you come to expect from this type of movie. One of the best directed films I've seen so far and a child actor that gonna stick with you for some time.

This post has been edited by 6so: Dec 18 2015, 07:23 PM

3d makes the dog fight worth the price of admission.

Bone Tomahawk - Very solid western that's good.

This movie reminded me of an era where studio willing to take chances on fresher premise and just roll a dice to see how it go. Unfortunately this movie was neglected for wide open releases and got dumped into VOD instead. This is not your straight to DVD movie and it does have good film making sense with a good script and performances. The nutshell is someone tresspass an indian ground that led to the kidnapping of Patrick Wilson's wife. So you have Kurt Russell leading a rescue mission to retrieve the wife. The thing about the native Indian behind the kidnapping is not your usual kind of red Indian that belongs to a certain tribe. When things go down with the hunt, there are really disturbing killings that will have you screaming in agony for one particular chap. If I'm to make a comparison, don't waste your effort to watch taken 3 or what not...this flick has way more heart and swagger than those garbage. Richard Jenkins is awesome in the movie.

Anomalisa - Charlie Kaufman is back in a better shape than ever!

For quite some time I thought he was done with the movie business after Synedoche, NY that was poorly received by the critics and ticket sales. Here he made a "Her"-esque story about an accomplished motivational speaker seeking for an extraordinary connection with another person. He is crippled by the mundanity of his life to the point everyone sound the same to him. When he heard a different voice in Lisa, he does everything he could to woo her. The puppet work really makes you forget that they are puppets, scenes after scenes felt couldn't have done any better in reality. This is the most accessible Charlie Kauffman movie to date due to the simple story it trying to tell, you don't need to crack your head to decipher the hidden meaning or figuring the complex storyline. To my surprise this is the least "Kaufman" movie I have watched. Beautiful voice works between the two leads and again Jennifer Jason Leigh stole this movie with her amazing voice work. Her rendition of Girl Just Want To Have Fun is one of the highlights of the movie. If I could have watched this last year, this is a top five good.