#Films Watched in 2018

[artfilmaesthetics]

𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙢𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙤…

florence + the machine

✧ ‘Suspiria’ (2018) dir. Luca Guadagnino

✧ ‘Saint Maud’ (2019) dir. Rose Glass

✧ ‘The Wicker Man’ (1973) dir. Robin Hardy

✧ ‘The Color of Pomegranates’ (1969) dir. Sergei Parajanov

✧ ‘Juliet of the Spirits’ (1965) dir. Frederico Fellini

✧ ‘The Red Shoes’ (1948) dir. Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Classical Period (Ted Fendt, 2018)

[2-gay-2-furious]

[camojacketfag]

french cinema that continues to vibrantly exist within the narrow passageways of my mind

[matt-tholomule]

i'm not immune to the sudden popularity surge of trolls

[creamiumsplendor]

I tried to find good critiques about Mandy (2018) on YouTube, because I think it’s a hauntingly beautiful film and I wanted to see who else felt this way, and was instead greeted with a wall of videos with “ENDING EXPLAINED” plastered all over the thumbnails, and this drives me up the wall for two reasons.

Spoilers for Mandy I guess, but if you’re at these tags you already know.

First, the film is really not that complex, the plot is incredibly straight forward and it’s not shy about the primary theme being loss of both someone you love and the stability that comes with that person. If the actual series of events seems confusing, you had to really not be paying attention, like not just occasionally checking your phone, but just missing an entire chunk of the film, in which case you should just start over and not resort to content mill garbage to find out what you missed.

Second, the idea that the ending, an unapologetically abstract and evocative set of images as Red loses himself to The Darkness while still holding the pure image of Mandy in his memory, NEEDS explanation just feels so incurious as a way to engage with media, especially this film. Whatever ending you think happened (Red is just tripping super hard, Red has actually transported to a demonic realm, Red has been dead the whole time), or that there explicitly ISN’T a clear ending, are all completely valid readings of the ending, because it’s not meant to concrete, it’s not supposed to make sense, THAT’S THE POINT. Red has become unmoored from his reality by the shock, the trauma of having his whole life ripped from him, and the line dividing the fantastical and the “real” has blurred even further than it already was at the start of the film. Trying to assign a quantitative solution to “Red + Drugs + Murder=“ misses the point because the emotionality, the way Red is feeling, the way YOU are feeling as you watch the scene, is the important bit. The act of watching and experiencing IS the explanation.

I don’t mean to malign this entire genre of videos, there are definitely movies with complex plots where having someone who does understand it give you a quick breakdown can help one’s own understanding and therefore enjoyment of a film or series. If you watch these kinds of videos, or even one of them for this movie, that’s not a bad thing. I just don’t think it was necessary for this film, where I get a lot of joy just thinking about how it made me feel, and I want to hear how it made other people feel, not just providing a bland explanation to get views.

Anyways if you haven’t yet, watch Mandy and then DON’T go to YouTube to find other takes.

[fujikasa]

YOSHIZAWA RYO as ISHIDA URYŪ BLEACH (2018)

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal in Museo (2018, dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios)

(These gifs also feature Leonardo Ortizgris and Alfredo Castro)

Gifs are all 540px wide so you can click to see larger.

[other gael filmography gifsets]

[hazel-callahan]

Ruby Cruz in AGING OUT (2018) — dir. Chester Milton

[dyouknowwhatimean]

the ranger (2018) dir. jenn wexler

[maskedbeliever]

People will thirst after Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us but won’t even watch his best “weird lonely guy adopts strange girl” movie, Prospect (2018), because it’s indie

[rhonze79]

Is today over yet… I think it’s time to watch a movie..

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Notes on an Appearance (Ricky D'Ambrose, 2018)

[gatalentan]

Jennifer Lopez & Leah Remini in SECOND ACT (2018)

[satoriberry]

finished watching matpat's finale, i think i'm gonna combust

[mikimeiko]

Venom (Ruben Fleischer, 2018)