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AfterHours
Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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- #91
- Posted: 08/06/2018 17:17
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New week (finally) ... (Ive been updating the last several weeks under a single "week's" content) ... Overall top works of 2018 also up-to-date now ... Main focus right now is Cinema, with many probable updates still forthcoming. See "Greatest Films" list (on the list itself and in the recent comments) for recent updates ... I am mainly trying to solidify 7.8-8.2/10, 8.3-8.7/10 and 8.8+ ranges right now so I am revisiting and updating all the main candidates for the time being. Once I feel my list is solidified, Ill be more open to venturing into films I havent seen yet and/or revisiting those I feel are less likely for an upgrade in rating into those ranges
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AfterHours
Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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AfterHours
Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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- #93
- Posted: 08/19/2018 20:36
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Watched and rated Alex Garland's Annihilation (2018) -- which was superb. Basically a sci-fi horror/suspense film that couples its ideas with professional homages to Tarkovksy's Stalker, Solaris and the suspense/terror of Ridley Scott's Alien. It's a film of visual wonder and compelling sci-fi references/ideas about biology, psychology/human nature that becomes a suspenseful anthropological journey. I was compelled thoughout but did think the very last scene (the embrace) was rather cliche (stereotypical begging for a sequel). It also seemed a bit unrealistic that the military would allow these particular 4 protagonists into the shimmer (after 3 years of so many lost men/women) without extensive back up/weaponry/tools (even though I understand they havent been able to learn very much so its believable enough to not be a serious problem). There is also the compelling idea that it was because of the shimmer's characteristics/ramifications that these four were "naturally selected". All in all, an excellent film. I rated it 7.3 with some misgivings "both ways". On one hand it impacted me on the level of probably 7.5 range, but I am wary to give it quite that high a rating due to the film being pretty standard in its camera work and editing, making it unlikely to have many additional assimilations/rewards upon subsequent viewings. In other words, it may be too dependent on the plot's suspense and the initial impact of it all than (also) on the depth of its cinematic language (which would enhance such factors). Are the images and themes (both especially great in its final act & climax) enough depth to hold up? Im not totally sure, so 7.3 might even be slightly high (7.1? 7.2?). Garland is a very confident and quite competent director (in the vein of, say, Denis Villenueve's recent work + some sense of early Ridley Scott combined with some sense of later Kubrick) but his film's could be really extraordinary if he were to initiate a more personal and compelling style more his own to develop his emotions/concepts into greater expressive heights and profundity. His films (Ex Machina and Annihilation) might be a little too reliant on the suspense of plot/circumstance and very high class surface visuals, whereas more layers/depth could be added with more creative editing and camera work that could expressively refract and multiply the meanings/allusions/psychology/emotions (etc) of his visions/stories. He is not poor in these areas. He is quite competent, but to meet eye to eye with the Blade Runners, Stalkers and 2001s of cinema history, he will likely need to expand and/or personalize his repertoire to a more singular and/or expressive cinematic language.
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AfterHours
Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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AfterHours
Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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AfterHours
Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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- #96
- Posted: 09/03/2018 21:23
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New week (first post, first page). Still getting my ass kicked by Cinema. Lots of updates, with more on the horizon...
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AfterHours
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Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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DelBocaVista
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- #98
- Posted: 09/17/2018 23:47
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Had some time and PM'd you some more thoughts about the whole "pairing of halves" thing.
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AfterHours
Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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- #99
- Posted: 09/18/2018 00:37
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| DelBocaVista wrote: | | Had some time and PM'd you some more thoughts about the whole "pairing of halves" thing. |
Thanks man. As always, quite thoughtful. I'll answer soon.
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AfterHours
Gender: Male
Location: originally from scaruffi.com ;-)
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