Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 2:13 pm 
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Mike D'Angelo's tweet reviews collated by score.

Image
Gastón Solnicki, Argentina, director of Kékszakállú

These should need no introduction by now.* I still value them despite occasional lapses. I've done this since at least 2012. He listed more then, but this may just be because he doesn't include W/Os this time.

His top five from TIFF '16:
1. Nocturama (Bonello) (74)
2. Kékszakállú (Solnicki) (72)
3. Divines (Benyamina) (69)
4. Arrival (Villeneuve)(68)
5. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (Perkins) (67)


All of them:
/Toni Erdmann/ (Ade): still 82. A different (but equally rewarding) experience this time, barely registering as a comedy at all.

Nocturama (Bonello): ? [later 74] Depends where I ultimately land on the ending, the ugliness of which I'm not sure is justified. But this is stunning.

Kékszakállú (Solnicki): 72. Often say of films that I loved everything except the narrative. This is those films with the narrative removed.

Divines (Benyamina): 69*. Richly deserving Caméra d'Or winner starts out loose and energetic, ends up horiifyingly tragic.
*Spare me.

Arrival (Villeneuve): 68. On the one hand, it labors to explain everything (even name-checks Sapir-Whorf!); on the other hand, whaaaaa?

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (Perkins): 67. Just an exercise in sustained creepiness, but often a highly effective one.

Joe Cinque's Consolation (Dounoukos): 60. Insane Australian true-crime story, meticulously staged w/ a superb central perf by Maggie Naouri.

Justin Timberlake + the Tennessee Kids (Demme): 60. Super slick 'n' corporate, but nobody beats Demme at shooting enormous bands onstage.

Souvenir (Defurne): 51. Fluffier version of THE SINGER with Huppert in the Depardieu role. Toggles between charming and sappy.

Voyage of Time (Malick): 57. Did my best to ignore the narration, concentrate on oft-stunning images. Still, 40-min IMAX is probably right.

Never Ever (Jacquot): 56. DeLillo's "The Body Artist" can't really work w/o the internal monologue, but it works better than you'd think.

The Age of Shadows (Kim): 54. Must confess I lost track of the convoluted intrigue in this K-Resistance thriller. Intermittently rousing.

The Commune (Vinterberg): 53. Not really about the commune itself, which is odd given that Vinterberg grew up in one.

The Rehearsal (Maclean): 52. Initially looks like a drama-school
version of Altman's THE COMPANY, which [thumbs-up sign]. Alas, there's a plot.

The Magnificent Seven (Fuqua): 50. "And they were…*magnificent*" the most hilarious pregnant pause since LAST FACE's "a man…and a woman."

The Net (Kim): 49. Sorry to disappoint, but it's a fishing net. CITIZEN RUTH minus the jokes, with North/South in lieu of choice/life.

Snowed In (Stone): 48. Bit perplexed by this as there's never even so much as a flurry. A lot of it takes place in Hawaii!

Pyromaniac (Skjoldbjærg): 47. These photographs / I don't want 'em / These photographs / I don't need 'em. Never quite catches...yeah.

/Yourself and Yours/ (Hong): still 46. Well, I tried. Sketchily floats ideas explored much more potently in ETERNAL SUNSHINE and Kim's TIME.

Daguerrotype (Kurosawa): 45. Not feeling his recent predilection for ponderous ghost stories. Brief attempt to replicate PULSE falls flat.

Nelly (A. Émond): 44. Really dug her last film (OUR LOVED ONES), but she has no better luck than anyone else with the great-writer biopic.

Nelly (A. Émond): 44. Really dug her last film (OUR LOVED ONES), but she has no better luck than anyone else with the great-writer biopic.

Dog Eat Dog (Schrader): 34. Mostly just unpleasant, but almost worth seeing just for Cage's sustained Bogart impression at the end.

(re)Assignment (Hill): 25. Actually think I can make a case for this as not grotesquely offensive. Not grotesquely stupid is another matter.

__________________________
*Other D'Angelo tweet reviews
Cannes and Toronto 2012.
Cannes 2013.
Toronto 2013.
Cannes 2014.
Cannes 2015.

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


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