Near the end of April, I got a stupid idea. I thought to myself, "Hey! You know what would make this quarantine more interesting? If I saw a movie every single day for an entire month!" And here we are. Welcome to the first ever Movie Mayrathon! I am watching a movie a day for the entire month of May! Yes, I am a wordplay genius. I wanted to take this quarantine opportunity to watch a bunch of movies I had never seen before. Some of these I either wanted to see but missed the chance or might have never seen if it wasn't for this marathon. I am scouring Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other outlets in order to find films for my viewing pleasure. Newer films, older films, doesn't matter. As long as I haven't seen it before, it's fair game. This post right here are my thoughts on the first week of films (aka days 1-7). And yes, I know May has 31 days. The final week will be a ten day week. Don't question my logic. Here are my quick, completely biased reviews of seven movies I saw this May. Enjoy!
DAY ONE: The Artist
DIRECTOR: Michel Hazanavicius
STARRING: Jean Dujardin & Berenice Bejo
RELEASE DATE: January 20, 2012 (US)
May 15, 2011 (Cannes)
"If only he could talk."
I respect this movie a lot. It's a beautifully, artistically done homage to the silent film era, full of beautiful cinematography, nice music, some fun choreography and a charming story about fame and love. Personally, this movie didn't do a whole lot for me, but I appreciate the artistic merit behind the film. There's some great comedy, some strong performances and there are a couple scenes in particular that I found very clever. I just didn't find myself connecting with the characters all that much. There are certain scenes where the main character is incredibly depressed and the film is trying to draw out an emotion of sadness and sympathy from its audience. Unfortunately, I didn't really feel it. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the style. Maybe it's the fact that the character is supposed to be an egomaniac. I'm not sure. I couldn't find myself getting drawn into his story. Now, please don't take this as me hating the movie. I didn't. It's very good. Great, even. For me, personally, it didn't grab me and as a result, I think it's a tad overrated. But hey, that's just my opinion. And like I said, there's some amazing stuff here. I think you should watch it for yourself, if anything to expose yourself to the silent film. Also, side note, the dog is the best character of the movie. Without question.
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
DAY TWO: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
DIRECTOR: Celine Sciamma
STARRING: Noemie Merlant & Adele Haenel
RELEASE DATE: February 14, 2020 (US)
May 19, 2019 (Cannes)
"When you're observing me, who do you think I'm observing?"
I don't think I have ever seen a movie this quiet and patient. This film crawls at a snails pace from beginning to end. And no, that is not a knock against the film. Portrait of a Lady on Fire takes its sweet time in the best way possible. You really get to experience every little detail this movie has to offer. This film treats every movement, every nuance and every subtlety like its the most important thing in the world, and the way this film allows you to soak in every detail possible makes for one of the most enchanting love stories I've ever seen. The directing is beautiful, the performances are great, the sound design is wonderful and it all combines into a fantastic slowburn. Does this movie feel like it's going nowhere at times? Sure. Are there instances when scenes go on for a little too long? Absolutely. But I must reiterate, the way this film uses patience and nuance to make such a sweet and captivating love story really is amazing. While I don't think I will ever find myself watching it again, I did love my time with Portrait of a Lady on Fire. This kind of story isn't normally my cup of tea, but I would be lying if I said this film didn't make me feel anything. If you like your love story to be romantic, and I mean romantic, in both visuals and actor to actor chemistry, then I definitely recommend this movie. The fact that it didn't get an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars this year is really sad because it definitely deserves the accolades it has received. But then again, even if it was nominated for that Oscar, Parasite would still win, so I guess that doesn't matter.
FINAL SCORE: 8/10
DAY THREE: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
DIRECTOR: Luis Bunuel
STARRING: Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran, Bulle Ogier & Jean-Pierre Cassel
RELEASE DATE: September 15, 1972
"You're better suited for making love than for making war."
I first heard about this film thanks to Cinefix, which is a YouTube channel that's like WatchMojo but for people that went to film school. Side note: yes, Cinefix is much better, as their content is actually informative and entertaining. Anyway, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie was listed on their "Top 10 Rule Breaking Films" video. The concept sounded incredibly absurd and I was very curious. Fast forward to now, I stumbled upon this film randomly on Amazon Prime. I got really excited and watched it. And my verdict is... I loved it. This film is a series of dinner scenes that constantly get interrupted by absurd scenarios. It is definitely inspired by absurdist theatre, as the structure makes the film seem like it's on an endless loop with each scene growing more and more outlandish. The comedy of the film is hilarious and its contrasted well with some truly fantastic dream sequences. This film will throw you off, as it did for me multiple times, but I loved it. The performances are all great, the costumes and the architecture are all delightfully 70s and the way the story progresses, gradually getting weirder and weirder, is so strange yet so fun. I think my one complaint is that the film takes a little bit to get going, but once it does, it gets bonkers. I loved this film. It's one of the smartest and funniest pieces of weirdness I have ever seen. Even if I didn't fully understand what it was satirizing, as I am not from France nor was I alive in the 70s, I was fascinated throughout, always wondering what would happen next. If you study theatre like I do, then I think this is a definite watch. But if you want something weird and silly yet surprisingly smart, then this is the movie for you.
FINAL SCORE: 9/10
DAY FOUR: The Merchant of Venice
DIRECTOR: Michael Radford
STARRING: Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes & Lynn Collins
RELEASE DATE: December 24, 2009
"The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath."
I had to watch this movie for my acting class, otherwise I would not have ever watched this in my life. Having watched it though, I must say, this film didn't do much for me. I do admit that part of the reason why is I haven't read The Merchant of Venice, so I was unfamiliar with the story. And since this is Shakespeare, knowing the story beforehand would have been quite helpful. But even still, I found the movie relatively uninteresting. The shots and the colors of the cinematography are bland for the most part and the music sounds like stock period music. The performances are fine, though nobody really blew me away. The editing, both visual and transcribing, is not the best. There is a sequence at the beginning that is chopped up to hell, and it makes the first few minutes of the movie look really bad. And even though I have not read the play this film is adapting, I can tell that there have been some notable cuts. I completely get why, as Radford had to squeeze a 3+ hour play down to 2 hours and 11 minutes, but there are some things that don't quite make sense. But then again, the language of Shakespeare is complicated, so who am I to judge? I will say that the romantic plot between Portia and Bassanio was not executed well. I'm not sure if it's the visual presentation or something that was cut, but the way their story progressed was very cheesy. But then again... this is Shakespeare we're talking about. Maybe that was all his idea. But I digress. The movie version of The Merchant of Venice was not for me. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't anything interesting. At least it's better than the Baz Luhrmann adaptation of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
FINAL SCORE: 5/10
DAY FIVE: The VelociPastor
DIRECTOR: Brendan Steere
STARRING: Gregory James Cohan, Alyssa Kempinski, Daniel Steere, Aurelio Voltaire, Yang Jiechang & Jesse Turits
RELEASE DATE: August 13, 2019
"So your parents died, Doug. It's what parents do. They die on you."
I think I have a new favorite guilty pleasure movie. The VelociPastor is a B-movie in every sense of the word. The plot is absurd, the performances are all over the top, the cinematography is amateurish, the audio is either way too quiet or way too loud and the costumes and special effects are laughable. And I loved every second of it. This film is genuinely hilarious. The jokes are so stupid yet they're the kind of jokes that I love. I was laughing hysterically throughout a good chunk of this film. And the low production quality made the movie all the more hysterical. You can tell they were working with a tight budget, but they pull it off in such a charming, cheesy, hilariously bad way. This film knows exactly what it is and just rolls with it. It never tries to be anything that it's not and I loved that. I found myself highly entertained from the very first minute until the roll of the credits. I don't have much anything else to say other than watch it. If you're a fan of movies so bad they're good, then you will love this movie. As of right now, it has dethroned The Fanatic for my favorite bad movie of recent memory. It's in tough competition with Batman and Robin for my favorite bad movie of all time. And I think that is pretty high praise.
FINAL SCORE: 11/10 (no, this isn't a typo)
DAY SIX: The Lobster
DIRECTOR: Yorgos Lanthimos
STARRING: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Coleman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Angeliki Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Lea Seydoux, Michael Smiley & Ben Whishaw
RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2016 (US)
May 15, 2015 (Cannes)
"If you encounter any problems you cannot resolve yourselves, you will be assigned children, that usually helps."
As a big fan of Lanthimos's 2018 film The Favourite, I figured I'd check out one of his previous films. And let me tell you: this movie is odd. The premise is strange, the progression of the story is unpredictable, and the performances make actors in a Wes Anderson film seem expressive and over the top. The Lobster is one of the most bizarre comedies I've ever seen. And frankly, that's the genius of it. This is a fascinating satire on relationships, love and the social pressure of trying to find someone. The story is told in such a weird and quirky way, providing so much awkward, uncomfortable humor. The performances are all intentionally bland, as well as the cinematography, as they match the tone and the subject matter of the movie quite well. And I have to chalk that up to the amazing directing. Lanthimos has such a unique vision and seeing it in such an off color film was an experience I won't ever forget. My only two nitpicks is that the soundtrack does get very repetitive and certain scenes go on for too long, but I still really liked this film. The writing is clever, the story is creative, the performances are all fantastic for as understated as they are and the directing is great. This movie is not for everyone, but if you're looking for something smart, quirky and just plain weird, then look no further.
FINAL SCORE: 8/10
DAY SEVEN: My Life as a Zucchini
DIRECTOR: Claude Barras
STARRING: Erick Abbate, Ness Krell, Romy Beckman & Nick Offerman (US Cast)
RELEASE DATE: February 24, 2017 (US)
May 15, 2016 (Cannes)
"My name is Zucchini!"
My Life as a Zuchinni is a charming, heartwarming and heartbreaking film about abuse, trauma, family and finding a place. In just over an hour, this film conveys a powerful and potent display of emotion most animated movies strive to attain. The maturity of this movie is staggering and the fact that this story centers around a group of kids is really amazing. On top of that, the stop motion animation is beautiful, with smooth frame transitions and gorgeous colors filling every inch of the frame. Despite all that, there are a couple of aspects that prevent me from loving this movie. For starters, it is too short. It's a little over an hour long and while it certainly packs an emotional punch in such a short amount of time, I feel like the film could've done more. Maybe being able to learn more about the other kids in the school would have been nice. There's quite a bit of time with Zucchini, as well as a couple of the other kids, but with everyone else, all we really know is their names and why they're at the school. There are a couple other quirks that other characters have, but it never really goes beyond that. There is so much this film could have embellished on, and it's unfortunate that it never does. I understand why it's so short, as stopmotion is very expensive. And even with the short length, they do not sacrifice a good story, because the story is quite good. I just wish there was more. This easily could have been an hour and twenty-five, maybe even an hour thirty. My other complaint is that I'm not a big fan of the character designs. They all look odd and somewhat absurd. While that is fine for, say, a Tim Burton film, with a story like this, I don't think it quite matches. Besides that, I thought this movie was pretty solid. It's not one of my favorite animated movies, but I certainly enjoyed it. It was a nice, breezy animated movie that definitely warmed my heart.
FINAL SCORE: 7/10
WEEK RECAP
Best: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Worst: The Merchant of Venice
Guilty Pleasure: The VelociPastor
Biggest Surprise: The VelociPastor
Biggest Disappointment: The Merchant of Venice
MAYRATHON RECAP
Best: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Worst: The Merchant of Venice
Guilty Pleasure: The VelociPastor
Biggest Surprise: The VelociPastor
Biggest Disappointment: The Merchant of Venice
Stay tuned for Week 2!
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