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Emma. (2020)
Gorgeous and Amusing
The movie is breathtaking with nearly every shot, as the cinematography captures some beautiful set design, giving a dream like state to each scene. I suggest that it's rather fitting to be dream-like considering Emma's constancy in matchmaking ideal men for her friend Harriet.
Just as Austen's novel, the movie is genuinely funny, lightly pushing on the bounds of etiquette to have great comedic moments.
Breaking Away (1979)
It's Not Always About the Race
Living young with your friends while going through the pressures of growing up leaves you in an awkward spot, full of worries. Dave, Mike, Mooch, and Ceril, when faced with the encroachment of adulthood, take refuge in each other as they lounge around the city of Bloomington.
While there loams uncertainty about their futures, the movie itself takes life a day at a time, making sure the best moments don't pass by too fast.
Breaking Away's script lead to both humorous and thoughtful conversations amongst the friends that leaves the audience with a charming impression of each one of them.
A troubling time in life? Definitely. But with the right people to enjoy the present with, this movie is a lovely, carefree story that shows, even as we race through life, there are moments when we can just enjoy the ride.
Gisaengchung (2019)
Devastating Filmmaking
With one of the most staggering turns in movie history, the stakes in what was already an extremely tense moment rose to an unprecedented level. The characters walk on such a fine line when trying to keep the other family fooled by their act that the film contains some of the most tense moments I have ever seen. The desperation and the lengths at which they go to left me in awe and made me question if their aim was still, if ever, worth it.
With a finely crafted script, true emotion, and some beautifully positioned shots, this film is unforgiving and left me completely emptied and speechless in what was one of the most affecting movies I have seen. Parasite will stick with me for a long time.
Salinui chueok (2003)
Amazing, Sobering Cinema
As the culprit continuously eludes the two detectives and the questioning of suspects always seems much in vain, the story takes a true toll on the audience who experiences every desperate and frustrating moment of the investigation.
The most fascinating part of the story lies in how the continuous failure to close the case leads to the breaking of both of the protagonists' character. While at the start one is introduced as a raucous, overly confident local police officer, who has little ability to show for it, and the other a city cop with composure and patience, both are much changed by the end.
In what is my favorite scene, near the end of the movie, the two policemen have a suspect cuffed and they all stand at the threshold of a dark train tunnel.
The city cop, whose frustration had grown with every visit to a new crime scene, is restless and with a gun drawn, ready to grasp at any sense of closure even if it means killing the wrong man. But the local officer, who himself was meant to be the undisciplined one, restrains him.
The local cop then, who had claimed at the height of his false confidence of his ability to look into the suspect's eyes and just know, grabs the suspect by the chin and stares into his eyes. "I don't know..."
With the true story, at the time of the movie's release, having no convicted suspect, they were left with no closure. We too as an audience are left devastated, having followed these men through their tireless search and having nothing in the end.
An emptying experience that forces the audience, ever-deeply invested and devoted to the cause of these men, to, just as they did, move on.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
O Muse tell this story for years on end...
With some of the finest dialogue ever written, to go along with such articulately performed mannerisms, O Brother Where Art Thou shows the Coen brothers at their most light-hearted in this retelling of Homer's Odyssey.
Clooney, Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson interplay brilliantly together, each bringing a particular dynamism to their own respective characters.
The collective harmony between expert screenwriting and attention to detail by the acting creates a story of an epic journey, filled with humorous interactions, ever-accompanied by investing conversation.