#2000 films

[raspberrydee]

been thinking about this scene a lot lately 🥲

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

November: Grey Redux

The House of Mirth / Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart

Lily wears this grey walking suit for an afternoon excursion by train. The focal point is the large, dark hat with veil and ostrich feathers. Its color is echoed by the dark lapels of the jacket, which in turn contrasts with the white lace jabot in front.

[vibe-stash]

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

Director: John Cameron Mitchell Cinematography: Frank G. DeMarco Production Design: Thérèse DePrez Art Direction: Nancey Pankiw

[adamwatchesmovies]

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream is heavy. From the first scene, you know things will not go well for its characters and from there, the situation only worsens. It’s not exactly the kind of movie you could watch on a whim but the skills used to bring this story to life are at a level that you can't help admiring.

In New York, Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto), his girlfriend, Marion (Jennifer Connelly), and his best friend, Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), are heroin addicts convinced selling drugs will allow them to fulfill their dreams. Meanwhile, Harry’s widowed, elderly mother, Sara (Ellen Burstyn), is obsessed with television. When she receives an invitation to appear on her favorite game show, she’s desperate to lose weight and fit into a red dress she wore at Harry’s graduation. She’s prescribed amphetamines to supplement her diet and becomes addicted to them.

I had never sat down to watch Requiem for a Dream before but I had a quasi-history with it. The track Lux Aeterna is iconic. I’d heard it used in many places (most notably in trailers for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) I'd also heard some out-of-context quotes from the film largely due to director Aronofsky’s filmography and this being one of Marlon Wayans’ few good films. Finally, I distinctly remember seeing clips of the film while in high school as part of an anti-drug presentation. I wish I remembered the presentation better - all I can recall are the clips of Harry's story - because whoever cut that video together must’ve used all sorts of tricks to make the footage appropriate for high schoolers. This film does not hold back. You can tell Harry, Marion and Tyrone are delusional. Their plan is NEVER going to work. Ultimately, it’s hard to say who is worst off among the three of them. Even if you can sort of guess where they will all end up, you still don’t know and their fates are made even more striking by what the film implies rather than show or tell in the final minutes. The framing of the characters, combined with their body language, the camerawork and accompanying music tell us all we need to know. Anything else would be redundant so, like a great horror story that stops as the level of terror rises to its peak, Requiem for a Dream cuts to black.

Part of what makes the film so effective is that we see the four main characters as more than simple drug addicts. Sara’s story is particularly tragic because the pills she begins abusing have been prescribed to her by a medical professional. The film tells us these people could be anyone. These are not just addicts; they're people. They were once children whose parents looked at them with eyes full of hope and pride. They have dreams and ambitions. They love and are loved but everything they were, are and could be are eventually swallowed up by their addictions.

All this makes Requiem for a Dream seem awfully depressing. I’m not going to say it isn’t but if you look at the techniques used to bring the story to life, it’s invigorating. Aronofsky, his cinematographer Matthew Libatique and editor Jay Rabinowitz use a multitude of techniques to say so much. Whenever characters take drugs, we rarely see them actually snort or inject themselves. What we see are montages of closeups representing the preparation required. Cotton balls are immersed, liquids boiled, syringes filled, powders spread, papers rolled. Then, we see a pupil enlarge. Cut to a normal shot of the characters feeling elated. We know everything there is to know now. Let me highlight another example. In the scene, Harry and Mario are lying in bed together. What you don’t immediately realize is that they’re actually further apart than they look. The screen is split vertically and their faces are moved closer by the editing. You only really notice when their arms cross into each other’s spaces. It allows us to see both of them up close and tells us about their relationship. The heroin makes them seem closer than they actually are. When their supply runs out, we realize what matters most to them even if they don't. The movie is filled with split-screen effects, uses of slow-motion, fast-forwards, jump cuts, shots with fish-eye lenses and other techniques that help us understand the character's mindsets. The frenetic final moments hit you over and over with images that make you scream “Stop! I can’t take it anymore!” but when it does stop, you’re like one of the addicts in the film. You forget how painful what you just went through was and you want another hit.

Requiem for a Dream is a film you see once and never forget. It’s a grim sledgehammer of reality that forces you to re-evaluate what addicts and addictions are. This adaptation of the novel by Hubert Selby Jr (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Aronofsky) offers such an in-depth view of the characters’ lives that the heartbreaks rank among the biggest you’ve ever seen on a screen. It’s stylish, grim and disturbing. I certainly wouldn’t want every movie to make me feel the way this one did but I would watch it again and am enthusiastically recommending it. A part of me wants to give it a slightly lower rating because it’s not for everyone… but I’m going to let its impact on me overcome that criticism. (January 30, 2025)

[meep-meep-richie]

# princess

[rookie-critic]

Rookie-Critic's Halloween Horror-thon: Part 4 - #16-20

#16: Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989, dir. Shinya Tsukamoto) [REWATCH]

A cult classic of Japanese cyberpunk horror and the debut film of one of my favorite Japanese directors, Shinya Tsukamoto (if you couldn't tell). The inspirational reach of this film is palpable if you know what to look for, having been cited by directors like Darren Aronofsky for his film Pi, Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, and the Wachowskis for The Matrix. It's hard to argue with results like that. I personally love this movie, I have its scant 67-minute runtime nearly memorized and have seen it more times than I can remember. However, I can certainly acknowledge its shortcomings as something that's not accessible to most audiences. Plot is definitely more of a suggestion than a rule here, and a lot of the film is spent in a state of frantic bewilderment as you try to piece together what exactly is going on through the nearly incomprehensible madness onscreen, but ultimately the "why" of it isn't important. It's rare that I say this, but I almost prefer that the film doesn't really give the audience anything concrete to go off of. It gives enough, and for the purposes of its dissection (apropos word choice there, good job, Rookie) of the relationship between man and metal and the growing industrialization of the 80s, Tsukamoto does exactly what he needs to do, and doesn't overstay his welcome in the slightest. It's one of the bigger reasons why this film works better than either of its sequels/reimaginings, and why it's so well-regarded amongst international film buffs. A short, manic, bizarro-thrill ride, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Score: 8/10 Currently streaming on AMC+/Shudder.

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#17: Onibaba (1964, dir. Kaneto Shindo)

This, for a majority of its runtime, doesn't really feel like a horror movie. That being said, there are plenty of pieces of horror in it to where, by the end, I see why it's labeled as such. The suffocation of the grass field that surrounds our main setting from all sides aides the claustrophobic nature of the film, and casts an air of foreboding over every shot. It's an interesting watch that dives into the desperation we feel when we are starved of our base desires and how that can cloud our judgement, especially in times of great hardship (in this instance, war). It's a film that leaves itself wide-open for interpretation, and one I'm still pondering over days later. Score: 7/10 Currently streaming on Max.

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#18: Eyes Without a Face (1960, dir. Georges Franju)

This French horror from the early '60s is another that I've owned for quite some time, and just never taken the time to actually sit down and watch. It's a slow burn (much like a lot of these older, black-and-white films are), and there are moments that feel like they drag on for too long, but the parts of this film that do work, really work. What Franju and his team were able to accomplish with practical effects and makeup in this is exceptional by today's standards, let alone when the film was released in 1960. The acting from Édith Scob as Christiane is similarly excellent considering she acts through the entirety of her screen time with a mask on. To be able to convey emotion without the benefit of facial expressions and have it come through despite that handicap and the language barrier (the film is in French) rightfully earns this film the praise it has received over the decades. Score: 7/10 Currently streaming on Max.

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#19: Ginger Snaps (2000, dir. John Fawcett)

OK, so I've seen Jennifer's Body twice, right? Once back around the time it came out (I hated it then) and then once within the past 5 years because I heard it was underappreciated in its time and is worth re-evalutating (I still don't like it very much). So with the memory of Jennifer's Body still fairly fresh, I'm just gonna say this is so close to being the exact same movie (there's obviously some differences in their story: werewolf not succubus, sisters not best friends), to the point where I out loud in the group I was watching it with said "Jennifer's Body just straight ripped this off, right?" and got a fair amount of agreement. However, this, to me, is a much better film. It has a lot of the Diablo Cody-esque kitschy dialogue without tipping into hard cringe and the practical effects work, while B-movie-ish in nature (we're never, as a society, going to top the transformation sequence from An American Werewolf in London), is really well done. It strikes a good balance between camp and smartly written horror which Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle juggle competently. Isabelle especially steals the show here as the titular Ginger, and provides a good, if not slightly caricatured, depiction of female puberty. Narratively messy, but tonally sound, Ginger Snaps deserves its status as a cult classic. Score: 7/10 Currently streaming on Peacock.

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#20: Opera (1987, dir. Dario Argento)

Opera is largely considered director Dario Argento's last great film before the quality of his output started to drop, and I can see why. It has all of the things that make his movies so good: a compelling main character driven by an even more compelling lead performance, an engaging mystery that unravels itself naturally over the course of the film, and that impeccable giallo style that he is the king of. Cristina Marsillach gives an impassioned performance and easily garners the audience's sympathy. The biggest curiosity of the film is that the murder sequences, which are expertly shot and unique in that the killer always ties up our protagonist and tapes needles underneath her eyes so that she has to watch the horror that ensues, are always cut with this insane, Judas Priest-like heavy metal music playing over them. Let me tell you that the consistency with which that heavy metal music played throughout the film had me confused, and then put off, and then finally fully indoctrinated by the final time it happened at the film's end. So much so that when that final time was about to happen, I was quite literally on the edge of my seat with anticipation, because I could feel it coming, and then when it finally came on I jumped up and cheered. I'm not sure if the desired reaction was achieved, but man was it massively entertaining. It's a little goofy, but I feel like this was about as far as Argento's signature style can be pushed without being a parody of itself, and Opera still largely works in spite of that glaring oddity. Score: 7/10 Currently streaming on AMC+/Shudder.

[sd-grls-clb]

[inlovewithcinema]

Little forest(2018)

A sublime treat for the senses,Little Forest felt like a breath of fresh air almost literally.

Based on a manga of the same name,Little Forest tells the story of Song Hye-won who gets tired of living the big city life in Seoul and returns to Kumouri(her native town)an idyllic village away from the chaos of the city where she repairs her emotional wounds and reconnects with her own self with the help of food ,friends and nature.

Some of my favourite scenes in the film are of Hye-won cooking traditional Korean dishes for herself and her friends Jae-ha and Eun-sook(which makes up most of the film actually).Visually,these segments are gorgeous and conveyed in a language which is very tactile and sensuous.In fact,most of the film felt like asmr to me ,soothing to the senses.

One of the cons of living a fast paced urban lifestyle is that you can easily lose yourself amongst all the white noise and get busy surviving.This movie will remind you of the pure joy that exists in some of the experiences that life offers us freely but we take for granted like smelling a flower ,or watching a rain drop fall on a pond making concentric circles of ripples,or the feeling of a breeze embracing your face.