Distractions of Lola

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) | after watching the trailer, i thought i’d hate this hipstery, quirky take on young love, but i actually really liked it. also, i need a gif of Bill Murray throwing his shoe at Ed Norton, stat!

The Grey (2011) | ngl, i enjoyed this survival action flick despite some of its mockable moments. also, Liam Neeson is badass. 

The Deep Blue Sea (2011) | for the most part, it’s a stuffy period piece encumbered by stodgy direction and a somewhat unsympathetic protagonist, but the film contains some interesting editing and narrative choices that somehow keep it afloat (hah!). 

This Means War (2012) | i hate myself so much for wasting time and watching this in its entirety (and i wasn’t even doing my nails). 

The Avengers (2012) | not my favorite superhero movie, but it is a lot of fun seeing this ensemble together, getting Loki’d and blowing shit up. 

Electrick Children (2012) | i had high hopes for this film and for the most part, it lived up to its expectations; funny and heartfelt, i hope people get a chance to see it when it’s released in the fall. 

W.E. (2011) | this movie is pretty much epitome of rich white girl problems, and the one interesting element about it was reduced to a montage of letter-reading. 

Titanic in 3D (1997/2012) | i still love this film. yeah, some of the dialogue seems really stilted now and expository/explanatory, but for a film from 1997, the CGI shots look pretty damn good. as for the 3D conversion, some of it works and some of it looks horrible*. but you know what was really great?—seeing the film again on the big screen. 
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*my nit-pickiest gripe about the 3D comes from the first part of the film, namely when the underwater footage on a monitor that the characters are looking at is rendered into 3D. this makes no sense. the characters aren’t watching that footage in 3D, so why are the speckles of floating rust and debris in 3D for us the viewer?

Days of Heaven (1978) | goddamn, this film is so beautiful and so compelling to watch; quintessential Malick. 

Shame (2011) | the thing with Steve McQueen’s films is that he seems solely focused on what his actors are doing in the frame to propel the story and neglects the fact that a good chunk of good filmmaking has to do with shot progression and camera language; sorry, dude, you can only use those steadicam long takes so many times before they become mundane. 

Swimming with Sharks (1994) | a dark and cynical comedy that’s still relevant today. 

Serpico (1973) | psychologically rich and complex, it’s definitely an (the?) iconic cop drama that so many films since it owes so much to. including this.

P.S. (2004) | the premise is completely absurd and the movie generally terrible, but i watched it anyway because of the locations.

Heathers (1988) | so ’80s (and thus sartorially dated), but i’m surprised by how dark and obscene some of the it actually is (it’s not lost its edge at all)—i just didn’t realize they made teen flicks like that back then.