davyK wrote:

Always thought it weird that the Dreyfuss character abandoned his kids, never mind the yummy Teri Garr.

Yeah, this stuck out to me as well. He has this weird emotional affair then abandons his kids.

Yeah - and after watching this and E.T. it makes me wonder whether Spielberg actually inspired the protagonist’s single mother trope in JRPGs. I wonder how much impact that one real-life breakup had on fiction as a whole!

One of the flagship IMAX cinemas in America is capable of both dual-laser and film projection - they’ve had to switch all their film screenings of Dune Part Two to laser because they played the film print so much that it’s worn out.

Want to watch Across the Spider-Verse but couldn’t remember the original very well, so…

Into the Spider-Verse (2018) - I ended up feeling the exact same way as the first time I watched it - quite liked it but not as much as the people that thought it was absolutely brilliant. I like how the art style evokes 2D animation and comics a little bit but the low framerate thing feels a little weird to me - the framerate is too fast to evoke the panels of a comic but too slow to evoke 2D animation. The story/script also feels the teensiest bit messy to me.

Really good fun though and nice to see something that isn’t one of the major animation houses doing their usual formula. ★★★★☆

El Conde (2023) - Black comedy-horror that asks the question what if Chilean dictator General Pinochet was a vampire.

I watched this because it was Oscar nominated for Best Cinematography. And the cinematography was nice. But it was the only thing I particularly liked.

By ‘black comedy-horror’ they mean it’s a film that isn’t particularly funny or dramatic or horrifying, so, y’know, just claim it’s a genre mash-up or something.

While this does explain the history, I don’t think it’s that resonant for people too young to remember Pinochet as a figure in public affairs. It did get some decent reviews so perhaps older viewers will get more out of it.

Not for me though. ★★☆☆☆

Block 2 has just crashed twice. Ruh-roh!

Block C was, to be honest, the weakest block so far.

Daly in a Van (Short, 2024) - A guy tries to persuade a friend/acquaintance to rob a cafe but it doesn’t go as planned. As with many of these, decent cinematography and acting is let down by a weak script, plus it’s quite slight. ★★☆☆☆

For Love Nor Money (Short, 2024) - Short comedy about a guy trying to buy his girlfriend a last-minute Valentine’s gift. Tale as old as time: cinematography and acting good, script bad. Watch online. ★★☆☆☆

Ends Meat (Short, 2018) - A thriller/horror hybrid about a down-and-out taxi driver whose dark side-gig comes back to bite him. This is a longer short at 30 minutes. I suspect this was like a ‘we’d like to make a full length movie but we’ll have to settle for a long short instead’ but there isn’t enough here to justify the length and it feels like the extended duration sucks the life out of it. There is actually some decent stuff in here and it would could have been much better with a tighter edit. ★★☆☆☆

Ends Meat is the best of a weak bunch.

OK, Block 4 was much better.

Angel Meadow: The Forgotten Genesis (Short, 2023) - Documentary about the Angel Meadow mass burial site in Manchester. Interesting but technically really rough. Quite a lot of runtime is based on what seems to be a really low quality Skype call with an academic. But interesting subject matter and not bad for a first go. ★★★☆☆

Grim (Short, 2024) - One of the highlights of the day. Some really nice cinematography - drone shots! - acting and, for once, writing. A young man struggling with grief has an encounter with a stranger. Good stuff. ★★★★☆

Delicacy (Short, 2014) - Two British soldiers trapped behind enemy lines just prior to Dunkirk teeter on the edge of darkness as they run out of supplies. Perhaps the best sound design and interior lighting of the day. ★★★★☆

Just One More (Short, 2023) - Two childhood friends reunite for one last conversation. This was sort of OK but it’s basically one long conversation between two characters in a single location and consequently feels a bit visually uninteresting and generally unambitious. Also, the way one of the characters cries at the end feels they took it too far. But OK writing. ★★★☆☆

I watched River which yes was kinda silly but actually good fun. Enjoyed it.

Wookienopants wrote:

Just used the Amazon gift voucher I got for my birthday to purchase The Dark Knight Trilogy 4K UHD Boxset.

Can't wait to see that glorious IMAX footage on my lovely lovely LG screen

You like those nice inky blacks on the LG screen right? But LG merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING! The shadows betray you, because they belong to me!

Watched Zone of Interest last night. It's very well shot and obviously incredibly chilling as a concept, but I think it could be just as effective as a short film. You could watch, say, the first 20 minutes, or possibly any 20 minutes, and get just about everything it's going for.

I said I was going to try to see the best in these but it’s been a long day of short films and I don’t give a fuck any more.

Tuned In (Short, Year Unknown) - Very brief sci-fi short, like maybe 5 mins. A guy invents a time travel machine to avert the death of his wife. This is a bit predictable and is so short there’s not much to engage with. ★★★☆☆

Low Frequency (Short, Year Unknown) - A man screams at a TV and that’s about it. ★★☆☆☆

Tremble (Short, Year Unknown) - One of only a couple I thought was tosh. Poorly executed technically with unclear dialogue (OK, it’s someone’s first attempt but it’s something they desperately need to improve upon) and weak writing. I think the idea was that there’s been some kind of civil war in the UK or some fantasy world modelled after the modern world and areas have been poisoned and mined and stuff. A guy stands on what he thinks is a mine in enemy territory. I think? I just can’t honestly say I thought this was any good at all. ★☆☆☆☆

Forget Me Not (Short, 2020) - I thought this might have starred the voice actress who plays Charon in Final Fantasy XVI but it’s just a vocal doppleganger. A woman visits her mother, who is suffering from dementia. This was decent an unlike a lot of the films, had a good go at hitting emotional buttons. It was another film school one. I feel like this festival is turned out to be a good advert for film schools because a lot of these are turning out to be better than the debut efforts of people that started out on their own. Watch online. ★★★★☆

Untitled #003 (Short, Year Unknown) - ‘Experimental’ and by experimental in inverted commas I mean shite. The audio is pretentious ramblings while the visuals are a montage of random black and white footage. The guy came up on the stage for the Q&A and basically declined to say anything about the film, which says it all really. ★☆☆☆☆

Fred Dibnah: The Grim Reaper of the Traditional Working Man (Short, 2023) - Pretentious documentary about the irony of Fred Dibnah being considered a working class hero for demolishing the factories that working class people used to work in. The visuals were good. The voiceover was slightly unclear and maybe a bit too highfalutin for its own good. Another uni project and in that context not bad. ★★★☆☆

Forget Me Not a clear winner from this final block.

Edit: Had a long think about it and Grim (Short, 2024) is my favourite of the first day.

Lord of The Rings 4K back in cinemas 8th, 9th and 10th of June.

According to this yes: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/lord-of-the-rings-theater-amc-tickets-b2534827.html

afgavinstan wrote:

afgavinstan wrote:

We're off to the Amy Winehouse film later. Given I went to the pics to see the Asif Kapadia documentary that left me in tears at points, and given ERE's review, I'm not expecting to have a good time. Still, ice blasts tho. Yass.

It's just not a good film. Could go on about mistakes and embellishment of things but even at a fundamental level, removing any fandom or knowledge I have of her, it's just a bit of a bad movie.

I’m curious what your take on the maternal theme was given you’re much more familiar with Winehouse in real life than me.