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Fuocoammare (2016)
A Documentary with an Artistic Value & a Reminder that we are Humans
It wasn't watching, as much it was staring. It was like director Gianfranco Rosi made us notice and examine this dilemma more thoroughly than any news station or social media platform. Those quiet yet fierce moments were everything,, everything we have to see.
In addition, Rosi used quite the effective symbolism, putting a little kid in use like that was genius. Samuele has a lazy eye; he's anxious worrying about something that doesn't exist; using tree branches to make a slingshot;turning cactus trees into targets to shoot and explode; he has trouble sailing. All these and more, are major issues that some people/countries around the world need to fix. When it comes to refugees we look the other way; we believe they are a problem; we'd rather make weapons than anything; we see them as enemies; we don't know how to help them.
This documentary has artistic value, but more importantly, it has a message that we all need to listen, see, and examine very carefully and wholeheartedly.
45 Years (2015)
"45 Years" 8.5/10
You'd think that nothing breaks a 45 year bond, or maybe you'd like to think that? After watching this movie, I'm sad and somehow not surprised. Charlotte Rampling's character, and herself, were the main focus here, so it is safe to say this is a character study from beginning to end. How they move, how they feel, how they think, and how they change. Speaking of change, the weather everyday keeps changing and gives a certain implication of how things gonna be in that day. Geoff went and bought a book about climate change, and described to Kate how ice melts then saturate into the rocks beneath and build up for a long time until it comes down like a tsunami. Going back to that scene, he was more like describing what happened to them in the end. Dead Katya was the pollution and their marriage was the environment, I think. In the end, I can't ignore the silly notion that director Andrew Haigh wrote this story based on The Platter's Smoke Gets in Your Eyes:
"They asked me how I knew, My true love was true, I of course replied, Something here inside cannot be denied, They said "someday you'll find all who love are blind", When your heart's on fire, You must realize, smoke gets in your eyes, So I chaffed them and I gaily laughed, To think they could doubt my love, Yet today my love has flown away, I am without my love (without my love), Now laughing friends deride, Tears I cannot hide, So I smile and say, When a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes, Smoke gets in your eyes"
Blow-Up (1966)
What's Real & What's Not
What you see in reality is definitely different from what you see behind the camera. With reality, you will have your hopes and fears, which makes any object behind the lens much better if you want to. The cameraman or the photographer will have his mind set to what the outcome of anything will be inside the frame, knowingly making it more beautiful that it really is. As of Thomas (David Hemmings), the lost and hollow lad from London, he is having trouble figuring himself, figuring how to differentiate between what he sees in real life and behind the lens, and finally figuring what's real and what's not. Picking a character like that to be the lead and then mixing it with the subject of mind-losing artists, is just brilliant writing.
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Real Emotions is What I Have Felt
I have watched it when it first got released, and I have been re-watching it ever since. The imaginative capability of Pixar writing is beyond us all. This super power they have can make a grown-up in his thirties, like me, feel happily silly and laugh hysterically. The world they bring to live on screen delivers a feel admiration and excitement, and a hardcore ground for parallel-world jokes. However, I can't describe into words the type of emotions they capture. They're so real, these fictitious unrealistic characters are real, and what you feel for them is real. I don't know how many times I've watched it, it didn't help me figure out how this could be made.
Toy Story 3 (2010)
Toy Story 3 did it better than Boyhood
Having seen the first Toy Story when it was released 20 years ago, I was 11 years old then, and considering it a true masterpiece, I haven't dared to re-watch it since, fearing I wouldn't admire it and love it as much. The people at Pixar are true artists, real masterminds of storytelling, plot line perfectionists and great at capturing heartbreaking moments. I've been mistaken all this time, this movie and the trilogy all together still a masterpiece, a funny thrilling emotional trip, that describes my boyhood better than Boyhood itself.
It is so ironic when you notice the resemblance between the mother/son scene in the two movies, and not only Toy Story did it first, it did better!