Movie Reviews
Given my seemingly infinite amount of free time at the moment, today I took it upon myself to catch up on some film classics I've still never seen, as well as a great new film from last year.The Disaster Artist
After writing about how much I loved The Room, having seeing it last month, it was inevitable that I was going to watch The Disaster Artist, a film about the making of The Room. It was funny, heartwarming and in parts scarily accurate to the first movie. James Franco's portrayal of Tommy Wiseau did a great job of shedding some light on this mysterious character and making him seem a bit more human, through, as Tommy reiterates over and over, "real human emotion". After watching this film, I remembered how much better it is to try to live your dream and fail, than it is to be an accountant.
Pulp Fiction
Finally, so many references, memes and gifs make sense to me after watching this film. Uma Thurman's performance was amazing, and I totally understand why this is a cult classic. Sex, drugs and violence galore, and a clever narrative, definitely one I will rewatch. Perhaps bizarrely, this film might me appreciate how good genuine human connections can be, though I will likely try to form them without as many lines of cocaine and handguns as the film does.
Trainspotting
Another classic, bleak as fuck, reminded me a lot of reading Chekhov's short stories about Russia. The film powerfully demonstrates some harsh realities and how imperfect our society already is (or was in 1996). Moving, funny and captivating, again well worthy of all the attention it has received over the years. More sex, drugs and violence, always a winning combination in my book. Often I feel like I am a bad son, brother, friend, and even less frequently, lover, but this film reminded me that no better how bad I may think I am - at least I am not a heroin addict. It also showed me that if Renton can kick has habit and sort his life out, I can do literally anything.Some poignant lines, one of my favourite being: "there was no such thing as society, and even if there was, I was nothing to do with it".
Die Hard
A heartwarming Christmas story of how far a man with a pistol and no shoes will go just to see his wife. I enjoyed watching Die Hard for the same reasons I sometimes enjoy listening to Kpop. I know what I want out of it, and it gives me exactly that, unashamedly and in spades. Over the top and completely ridiculous violence, violence, and uhh, violence (technically some trivial drug use. Noticeable lack of sex). Everyone in this film apart from the protagonist is an inexplicably terrible shot, and all shot from the hip despite being "highly trained" terrorists. If I was going to train a terrorist, the first thing I would do would be to teach them to always shoot from the shoulder.... The manliest film I have watched in a long time, it put hairs on my chest and my voice is at least a semitone lower now.