Yeah she was a perfect casting choice, but the way the actual story is described, it sounds like really bad fanfiction, here's Doug Walker tearing it the fuck apart, I don't always agree with that guy, but he makes this movie sound especially bad.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgeR2Iabczc[/youtube]

It's mediocre. They don't really tell Maleficent's side of the story so much as tell a different story in which Maleficent is evil for a decade. Furthermore rather than blurring the lines of Fairy Tale good vs evil they just make maleficent evil and pit her against the now evil king. The film had potential, but it was a real disappointment.

Really? The way Doug described it it sounds like an attempt to rewrite Maleficent as a misunderstood tragic hero and to make all of the other characters look as bad as possible, just FUCK that premise, Maleficent is pure evil, that's the way she's supposed to be, this sounds like some tumblr blogger trying to write her idea of a feminist deconstruction as a "take that" to those sexist Disney movies, FUCK THE PATRIARCHY! GRRL POWER! This movie sounds less like a labor of love to the original and more like a big slap in the face of the original and everyone who loved it.

Well I love Sleeping Beauty so fuck the people who made this movie back in kind, there is nothing wrong with a simple well told story of good and evil, major studios oversimplify everything anyway so what fucking right do they have to think they can "improve" classic fairy tales? Especially when all they end up doing is rehashing them into the same shit they're already doing to death.

Hollywood is still going through this phase where everything has to be fucking Lord Of The Rings so everything has to be "complex" and "deep" and by that I mean hapzardly throwing as many popular tropes together as possible, fuck this whole trend of fucking up classic children's literature and trying to make it more "mature", this looks even worse than Burton's Alice In Wonderland, oh hey, it was written by the same person, yeah I don't think I'm being unfair here.

I'm done with this whole "fairy tale deconstruction" shit, how about we just bring back actual fairy tales, lest children forget what the fuck those are?

I meant to say anti-hero rather than evil the second time, so it sounds like Doug's got the measure of the film. I really like Sleeping Beauty too, it was my favourite Disney film when I was a little kid, but I guess I wasn't as upset about Maleficent from an original fan standpoint, viewing it instead as an alternative reality story based on Sleeping Beauty. On those terms it's not a good film, but not awful either. I didn't feel massively pissed off that I watched it, even if there are many films I would rather have watched. I gave it a 5/10 on IMDB if that means anything.

The Gift (2015)
8.2/10

Overall I felt this was a pretty good movie. Was kinda slow for the most part but I believe the slow pacing is meant to add to the discomfort/suspense. Acting was solid. Really fucked up (but in a good way) and disturbingly ambiguous ending. 2 little things though: I heard or read a review or two describing the film as Hitchcockian which I didn't really get. Also, Joel Edgerton's character (Gordo) gives like 10 gifts throughout the film. It should have been called The Gifts. But then again I'm sure the title refers to the ending. The final gift

Koyaanisqatsi
8/10

What About Bob?
7/10

Like Someone in Love

Kiarostami plays at Ozu. Of course I liked it. Does anyone shoot a scene in a car better? Half as good? The answer is no.

That ending, though. I'm not sure. Neither good nor bad. I'm just not sure.

Linklater comes close to half. But that's all I can think of right now.

Queen of Earth

See this version of Persona directed by a John Cassavetes/Vincent Gallo lovechild.

10/10

Holy shit thanks for the rec, had never heard of it before... The poster looks amazing. Also, it's from the guy who directed Listen Up Philip - a movie that's been on my radar for quite some time since Masters of Cinema put out a blu of it.

looks drewwy as fuck

it is. I liked Listen Up Philip but it was too derivative of Husbands & Wives for me. This is an amazing film. So glad to have a film of the year that feels uniquely catered to my tastes.

Tomorrowland
6.6/10

The Iron Giant
8.6/10

The Incredibles
8.8/10

i'm looking forward to seeing it and i'm also really glad there's someone like alex ross perry around making films on 16mm.