the ballad of narayama (1958) - 19/09/16

• lol apparently it was the 1983 one that got 100% on rottentomatoes but this was still a pretty good watch. I think some might find parts of it a bit slow and tbh the end was a bit "what?" for me. Not that I was confused, just that it felt very sudden and that not everything was resolved even though it was technically. Stylistically very nice, esp. the part where the men are talking about the rules for the journey to narayama ★★★☆☆

catch me if you can (2002) - 22/10/26

• read leo's wikipedia page while procrastinating and decided to watch. A few comedic moments, but i also got teary-eyed during the sad moments near the end which i think is a sign of how good leo's acting was as well as the overall development of his character and story progression. A lot of times where i had to pause and go "oh my god what are you doing" because of frank. I liked how handratty found someone he could discuss his job with in frank because nearing the end i was really wishing he had more sympathy for him. Enjoyed watching a lot ★★★★☆

fargo (1996) - 29/10/16

• first 5 minutes might be slow but after that it really picks up. Really climactic and surprises you even though you think you wouldn't be. through the first half it really doesn't seem like it'll shock you but you find yourself really invested in the story 3/4's in. pretty funny. i really wanna know what jerry wanted the money for lol ★★★★★

angus, thongs and perfect snogging (2008) - 29/10/16

• pretty touching sometimes, robbie and georgia pretty cute, but also one of the stupidest films i've watched. really cringey at they start maybe because they were trying to set georgia and her group up as the losers or smth even though they forgot this fact at the end when the whole school (and random old people?) or something show up for her birthday and they're SO happy for her and robbie and how she completely ruined lindsey, even though she was right for calling out georgia about stealing her boyfriend!!!! why were they booing her??!?!?!! that's exactly what georgia did!! she stole robbie even though she knew they were dating, she's presented as so cool and the underdog because she was the loser for 5 seconds in the film before boys were falling for her and everyone showed up to her party and she's the protag so she doesn't get reprimanded for her actions and gets off scott free and happy at the end with all her problems magically resolved in 5 seconds because the director couldn't think of any other way to finish the plotlines she started. I think they forgot they were making a movie with a main character that's 14. maybe because it was british but what kind of 14 year olds are that worried about boys and getting in to relationships with THAT MUCH "SNOGGING". i sound like a suburban conservative mum but honestly its only been 3 years since i was 14 and i dont remember anyone that cared that much about guys or any guys that were like robbie or peter or tom (all clearly not 14 years old, also the girls clearly not 14 or 15 given the production crew were allowed to film them wearing thongs with their butts out, isn't our suspension of disbelief supposed to be maintained?) - "serving these lovely ladies" yes 14 year old boys definitely talk like that and are mature enough to approach relationships and girls the way robbie did. i'm not saying 14 year olds can't be mature (rowan blanchard a good example) and i should give them credit where it's due but if its a movie about average teens then honestly they should've just made them 17 or even 16, which would've made the characters and storyline just a bit more believable. also georgia's actually pretty mean. she's cute with robbie but with everyone else she's seriously unreasonable sometimes. she's self-centred and sometimes it comes from a good or understandable place (being sulky with jas because tom asked jas out and robbie didn't ask her out) but sometimes she was annoying (constantly ordering jas around and using her to get close to robbie, which wouldn't be bad if she didn't keep doing it over jas being happy about tom, she barely supported jas and tom even though they were so happy together and only wanted to get/do what she wanted) but georgia's actor was pretty good, especially the crying scene!! that surprised me it wasn't even one tear, it was THREE! more than i can do with some random woman next to me. i really liked that they chose her too even though they could've easily used someone that looked like lindsey instead. robbie treated her normally and they never brought up her appearance and making a big deal about it or making it about robbie choosing an "ugly" girl but they did use her normal look to make lindsey seem more evil as the pretty bitch popular girl character. jem's character was a bit hmmm. how convenient that jem is gay at the end, like hello!! yes that's what all gay people say i'm glad they included that stereotypical signal so that i could easily identify jem and his gayness like his boyfriend (whom they explicitly told us was his boyfriend) coming up to hug him wasn't enough.

at the end of the day it was a typical teen movie so i probably shouldn't have expected much ★★☆☆☆

life is beautiful (1997) - 30/10/16

• it took a lot longer to establish guido and dora's relationship/dating than i thought. sad movie but i was kinda expecting the end tho and the way guido was found out just seemed to easy and rushed.the plot twist (if you can call it that) with dr.lessing was cool because you honestly thought he was a good guy but he was just crazy ★★★☆☆

spirit: stallion of the cimarron - 2/11/16

• i watched nearly half of the movie before i asked myself, "did horses always have eyebrows?" the soundtrack was really cheesy but the story overall wasn't too bad. i wouldn't watch it again though ★★★☆☆

50/50 - 5/11/16

• funny in some parts and honestly a bit emotional but i thinks its because joseph gordon levitt's acting was pretty good. seth rogan, not so much. the relationship between anna kendrick's character and jgl felt really weird to me idk i think the script just wasn't written very well and i feel like any interaction they had was just kinda weird ★★★☆☆

the illusionist (2010) - 6/11/16

• i really liked the story, but it was so depressing! not throughout, just at the end. i honestly teared up. its sad but definitely worth the watch. there's very very little dialogue (bits and pieces of french, english and gaelic) but you can still infer the story from the actions of the characters and it keeps your interest until the end ★★★★☆

arrival - 30/11/16 ★★★★☆

when harry met sally - 7/12/16 ★★★☆☆

girl, interrupted - 14/12/16 ★★★☆☆

moana -

• i don't know if the reason i don't enjoy disney movies as much as i used to is because of nostalgia or not, but this movie didn't leave as much of an impact on me as i feel like disney movies should. I didn't go out of the cinema feeling really happy after watching the film and i'm really disappointed by the music like i was with frozen. it's not so much that the individual songs are bad (although i feel like the current line up of disney music is kind of boring and 'eh' in terms of lyrics and melody/tune) it's just that they're fit so awkwardly within the movie. the songs come out of nowhere sometimes and the scene doesn't really build itself up to actually need a musical number, but we get one anyway. something i felt with this film was that it lacked that "big bad" kind of villain which has its pros and cons.

★★★☆☆ + 1/2

barry - 18/12/16

• 'eh' is my overall feel for this movie. i dont know if the film could help this but i just didn't really feel like i was watching obama's backstory. instead i felt like i was watching a story completely made up by the director or whatever. it explored the prejudice obama would've experienced in his uni days pretty well but it also would've been nice if they included some more parts of him actually in uni, like going to lectures and participating in other stuff. ★★★☆☆

hocus pocus - 20/12/16 ★★★☆☆

american beauty - 20/12/16 not as amazing movie as people make it seem. idk, it was interesting in terms of plot and characters but i guess i ended up not really liking it just because ★★★☆☆