What I'm watching

Hi all, this tumblr mainly exists as a way of tracking all the movies I've been watching and some of the initial thoughts, and general feelings, I've had about them.

5/5 - Fantastic movies; movies which need to be seen and enjoyed by everyone.

4/5 - Movies which are very good but don’t have that spark which compels you to make others watch them as well.

3/5 - Average movies; watchable and enjoyable, but nothing which elevates them higher. The baseline all movies are given before watching.

2/5 - Can be watched but really bland and forgettable.

1/5 - Minimal to no reason to watch these films. It may have some redeeming factors e.g. it’s so bad it’s good or there’s one character that’s awesome enough to make it not a total waste of time.

0/5- Total waste of time. Nothing redeemable about these films.

As with every review blog/site, this is all my own personal opinion so feel free to take everything with a grain of salt.

Also I'm Scottish so all reviews will be in UK English. Get used to theatre, colour and words ending in -ised.

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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

#366/#83 City of God A Brazilian film documenting the rise of various criminals in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro between the 60’s and the early 80’s. The main story follows 2 boys, Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) and Li’l Ze (Leandro Firmino), as they take very different paths to become a photographer and a drug dealer respectively. This is another one of those films that makes it into a lot of those ‘100 films to see before you die’ lists, most likely for the cinematography and the ‘real life’ feel the movie has to it. Everything in this movie feels very grimy and gritty. It’s not a pretty film, although there are some very beautifully shot scenes throughout, but the use of real people from the actual Rio slums, the fact that it’s based on true events and just the overall narrative make it one of the more ‘real’ feeling films I’ve seen. In terms of telling an interesting story, illustrating a point and drawing attention to something maybe not everyone in the world was aware of this film is a great success. However, to me personally, there was a lack of emotional impact with the characters. I was following their stories but I just couldn’t find anyone to care about and I think that pulls this film down a bit. Clearly there’s a bigger picture going on with gang warfare killing innocents and turning children into soldiers which invokes horror and empathy for those caught in the crossfire but without someone in the middle to care about it’s all just a little detached. Rocket is just not interesting enough or centrally involved in the story enough to be this person. This brings it down a lot for me, but it doesn’t stop the film from still being an interesting and enlightening piece of cinema all the same. There’s a reason it makes it onto all those top 100 lists. 3.5/5

#366/#83 City of God

A Brazilian film documenting the rise of various criminals in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro between the 60’s and the early 80’s. The main story follows 2 boys, Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) and Li’l Ze (Leandro Firmino), as they take very different paths to become a photographer and a drug dealer respectively.

This is another one of those films that makes it into a lot of those ‘100 films to see before you die’ lists, most likely for the cinematography and the ‘real life’ feel the movie has to it. Everything in this movie feels very grimy and gritty. It’s not a pretty film, although there are some very beautifully shot scenes throughout, but the use of real people from the actual Rio slums, the fact that it’s based on true events and just the overall narrative make it one of the more ‘real’ feeling films I’ve seen.

In terms of telling an interesting story, illustrating a point and drawing attention to something maybe not everyone in the world was aware of this film is a great success. However, to me personally, there was a lack of emotional impact with the characters. I was following their stories but I just couldn’t find anyone to care about and I think that pulls this film down a bit.

Clearly there’s a bigger picture going on with gang warfare killing innocents and turning children into soldiers which invokes horror and empathy for those caught in the crossfire but without someone in the middle to care about it’s all just a little detached. Rocket is just not interesting enough or centrally involved in the story enough to be this person.

This brings it down a lot for me, but it doesn’t stop the film from still being an interesting and enlightening piece of cinema all the same. There’s a reason it makes it onto all those top 100 lists. 3.5/5

  1. djbase53 reblogged this from leezy2 and added:
    this movie was fye
  2. leezy2 posted this