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scarabjewels · 4 months ago

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Films I Watched Recently

Lately, I have watched a number of movies, which is a hobby. I was able to come back to after a long time. I was writing so many detailed opinion essays, so how about a brief short ones in a list.

(SPOILERS)

1) Immaculate

I watched this twice, with different sets of friends as well.

On my first watch, me and my best friend and we watched it without subtitles. Literally in Sydney Sweeney's character's perspective.

The story follows an American nun, Sister Cecilia, moving into a convent in Italy. In a miracle, she concieved a child as a virgin. The convent practically treasured her as they believed she bore the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

As we watched the movie, and my best friend questioning everything that is happening, Cecilia's experience in the convent gradually becomes creepier and extreme.

Just before the immaculate conception, Cecilia was shown the nail that the convent believed to be one of the nails that pinned Christ to the cross and "fainted". Cecelia then always felt like she was being watched, and in during her pregnancy, she was worshipped by the convent, all except her friend and another nun.

She was almost killed by a nun and we did not know why because we were lacking subtitles, so on the second watch with our other close friends, I learned that the nun was jealous and enraged, saying that it should've been her.

Cecilia's friend and a fellow nun, Sister Gwen, grew concerned as the convent refused to let Cecilia go to a hospital, and I think she was suspecting the cultist ways of the convent. When she spoke up, she was taken away, and we found out she was silenced to death.

Cecilia tried to escape on her own, which was almost successful. But she was caught and was locked up and watched closely in the last days of her trimester.

In the end, she was able to escape just in time to birth the child and well I don't think anyone who experienced a cult negatively will ever keep a reminder of it.

The film had A24 vibes, as it reminded me of Robert Egert's " The Witch" and Midsommar. The pacing was good, the build up, characters, horror elements, practically very decent.

Yet, somehow it's a 5.8 in IMDb but scored decent in Rotten tomatoes, 71% in Tomato meters and 60% in audience score.

It's not a horror but much more a good thriller, it can be triggering for pro-life and r**** victims, as the ending is subtlety but strongly graphic.

Personally, I liked it, it is a decent cult thriller. I think it is best to watch with friends, as admittedly the movie came of as mid, so watching it alone may not be as exciting.

2. Helter Skelter

Now this, this was A BLAST.

Please be warned of how much pornesque sex scenes it has (not quick regular movie sex scenes, trust me).

I already wrote about it and gave my thoughts so here's a summary.

Helter Skelter is a campy psychological thriller centering Lilico, a rising star in Japan and a plastic surgery addict. She is a protagonist but her story shows how much of an asshole she is, as she suffers from the extreme side effects of her extensive surgeries, her obsession with beauty, manic episodes, and how may people around her suffers from her actions.

I took the liberty to read the original manga of the same name, and the movie had many creative liberties with visuals and honestly the its visuals in the movie is beyond the manga, while the manga is campy and slightly mod, the movie was CAMP. The content was very much the same, that it was very impressive.

There are some things in the manga I wished occured in the movie: Hada being around the same age as Lilico, instead Hada was a pushover in her late 20s in the movie, and the detective's bubbly but calculative personality which became just weird and creepy in the movie.

It was a great watch with friends, I kind of preferred it.

3. Midsommar

This movie is the last one on this list that I watched with friends, and I hated it, and I was not alone.

The plot involves a depressed (yes it is actually relevant that she is depressed during this time) Dani tagging along with her boyfriend and his friends' trip to Sweden in their research of a cult, in the midsummer where nightfall was pretty non existent during this time in that country.

It pissed me off, but it was very entertaining. I hated the roofie consummation so much. JUST WHY.

I can handle the gore, the bear being gutted, skinned people, but that one just...no.

Anyway, it's a good thing I watched it with people because I don't think I could handle that alone.

4. The Help

Youtube shorts made me watch it, and it was WORTH IT.

The Help is the adaptation of the book of the same name, according to IMDb "An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis."

Skeeter, the aspiring author, is borne in an above average working class white family herself but was raised by her maid all her life. Her friends, members of the city's socialite group, were borderline participating in racist activities.

The first two maids Skeeter interviewed were the maids of her friends in the group. Aibileen, the narrator of the movie and a major contributer to the book (honestly, CO WRITER) , worked for Elizabeth, who started working as a maid at age 14. The second was Minny who worked for the incredibly mean socialite leader, Hilly.

While the project was risky enough for the time, as in the movie shows the dangers of speaking up in the 1960s, the hate crime was just as violent, and the culture was discriminated unjustly. However, it was pushed through.

The film was somehow a feel good movie, or maybe it just was. I just loved everything about it, Hilly getting her just desserts...ooohhh boy she did, Minny and Celia's friendship, and the scenes after the book was published, it was perfection.

I do feel like movies like this are almost nowhere to be found nowadays, everything is just so dramatic, complex, edgy or just trying hard. The simplicity of the film with just good acting (the star studded cast worked so well here) and a great story. I am so glad that Jessica Chastain and Bruce Dallas Howard actually stared in a movie together, it is so hilarious and just soo right, just watching them interact in a movie made it so worth while already.

5. ReLIFE : Live Action

More of a rewatch, Relife is the tale of a 27 year old man ,who is dissatisfied with his life, offered by an experimental company for a chance to relive his life. He finds himself turning younger and living a full year as a 3rd year high schooler with a group of friends and finding love in the process.

Another feel good movie. I never watched the anime and honestly I think I'm content not watching it. I liked the journey of Arata, he did not relive like a teenager, but as an adult trying to find purpose in a different environment. When he was rejected, he took it like an adult, which he is (I just like that maturity actually was portrayed in the story realistically). The twist was so simple yet sad at the same time, Hishiro, Arata's crush and first friend during his relife, is also partaking in the same experiment (she doesn'tknow he is in Relife tho). The sad part is that she also likes him and rejected him because she knew it is impossible for them to get together, as the experiment would erase any memories of other people of them after it ends. They are both in the experiment, meaning they will not be able to remember each other after. Yoake, the overseer of their experiments, sympathizes with their situation and at least in the live action, made subtle moves for them beyond his job as an observer.

Overall, it's a sweet story about living with intention with some love stories here and there.

6. Legally Blonde

After rewatching 'The Devil Wears Prada' so much, I decided to watch a couple of old chic flicks.

Legally Blonde is THAT GIRL.

(Google did not exactly provide me the source of this synopsis, just know it came up top)

"Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) has it all. She wants nothing more than to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III. But there is one thing stopping him (Matthew Davis) from proposing: She is too blond. Elle rallies all of her resources and gets into Harvard, determined to win him back."

This is everything. Just a good time. Warner is shit. Elle conquered and made a friend: Warner's (ex)fiance, Jennifer Coolidge and her future hubby, Emmett. Callahan should eat a brick. Tye bend and snap was nonsense but well, It's there.

10/10

Feel good. Great message: As Barbie once said, you can be anything (imo). Also just really sweet.

7. Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio

This was heartbreaking and themes are very touchy.

Fascism, loss, grief and immortality.

This pinnochio story is much more grimm that the last 3 movies I watched. I did not expect so much of the Nazi influence in the setting of the movie, or the amount of melancholic realities it was going to give. Geppeto's grief at the loss of his sons was devastating to watch, but when Pinnochio became an actual boy soldier, I couldn't help but just remember Jojo Rabbit, I never watched it in full but I saw glimpses of it so much in YouTube, that it does relate to this story in some way. Jojo Rabbit was history in the eyes of a child, so was this version of Pinnochio, that you would be so engrossed with its wonder but then it snaps you back to the reality of it, in Pinnochio, he witnesses and experiences physical abuse and exploitation, experiences death too many times, becomes a boy soldier in training and gets to see his loved ones die as he outlives them all.

A scene stuck to me in this movie, more like a question. Pinnochio becomes friends with a boy from his town, Candlewick, when they were reunited in a training camp for boy soldiers. Candlewick stood up to his father just before a bomb lands in the camp , literally in between his father and Pinnochio. Pinnochio's body blows out of the camp and he dies, only to come back a little bit after. Candlewick survived the bomb, but couldn't find Pinnochio. Candle wick did not appear again after that. I really wondered if he even lived or went home or something. Literally nothing. The cliffhanger was not disappointing but man, I really wanted to see Pinnochio and Candlewick reuniting.

As for the movie, it's a good watch. I had watched a lot of Guillermo's projects, and I think this is the second time his movie featured war themes mingled with child wonder. Just a thought.

8. Five Nights at Freddie's

Apparently, I have one more movie I watched with a friend and it's this one.

It started off good then just gets cheesy in the end. It's quality reminds me a lot of mid to late 2010s comedy films like "Happy Death Day" or " Ready or Not", but the overall premise is more similar to the Scooby Doo live action films, ironically they starred Matthew Lillard here too.

It's too cheesy, it's not bad or good either. I wish it had more horror to it like the game. I did not play it but I did have the pleasure to enjoy the commentary of it by the King of Five Nights at Freddie's himself: Markiplier and I was dissappointed that he did not appear in the film.

Needless to say, I was not entirely sure if it was trying too hard or not trying at all. But it did came off unfulfilled to the namesake.

That's about it and here's some more rewatches I felt like I do not have to make a semi detailed review on it:

• Julie & Julia ♡♡

• Emma (2019) ♡♡♡

• Chef ♡♡♡

• Swallow (2019) ♡

• Memoirs of a Geisha ♡♡

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