konec Blog

For the first two thirds of this film I thought it looked amazing and was funny and Godard was pulling everything out of his bag of cool tricks, so I thought I'd just try to ignore the ridiculous Maoist politics that these kids were spouting the whole way through because, I mean it's stupid, but it was the 60s so I'll make some allowances even if I'll mark the film down for them in the long run. But then in the third act the film starts taking apart the whole thing and it's awesome. It's like Jean-Luc reached through the screen and bitch-slapped me, as if to say "You thought I'd believe shit like this? Who do you take me for? Vilgot Sjoman?", and I'd be all like "Nice 60s art film reference right there, Mr. G!", and he'd be all like "Thanks man, you're cool too," and we'd go eat croissants together. It was beautiful. And this is finally a Godard film in color that looks every bit as good as his black and white ones, so basically that's the reason you should see it.

Saw this today for the third time. The first time I was 14 and didn't like it at all -found it neither funny nor involving, I straight up didn't get it. The second time I was 18 and loved it. As I write this I am 20 and will be 21 in a week, which is as it turns out exactly how old Benjamin Braddock is at the start of the movie. I haven't graduated yet, but then I got held back in kindergarten for reasons which remain hazy to me. I still love it. Paul Simon's lyrics having nothing to do with anything (well, besides a few lines out of "Sound of Silence"), and that's kind of irritating, and I guess some of the symbolism is pretty heavy handed (though I find it effective nonetheless), but it really does capture beautifully the experience of being boring and indecisive and inarticulate, as Ben is and as I at times am/fear myself to be. And it's very, very funny.

The acting is excellent (really), the violence is efficient and matter-of-fact, the mood is of a sufficiently moody variety, and all the Russian gimcracks and gewgaws serve to distance this from most other mob flicks. If there is a fault, it's that all of its good qualities suggest more than it ends up delivering. The story turns out to be surprisingly slight and it all works itself out with relatively little hassle, all things considered. Its a good movie with plenty of damn fine elements, but I left feeling slightly underwhelmed.

So, the first movie I've seen since I signed up here. Which means that prior to tonight I've seen approximately 766 movies, not counting anything I forgot. Not sure if that's good or bad or indifferent. So, Tokyo Story. Ozu. Sad sad sad. I sat down expecting to be bored, and for the first few scenes I thought I was in for it. But the movie hooked me, consarn it. Once again, sad. I imagine if I saw it in a decade or two (or five), I'd've been in tears by the end. As I'm a youngin with few life experiences I was just sad. Sad movie. Good movie. I'ma give it five stars if I remember. Gonna see more Ozu too. Maybe even more once I'm old enough. Nice site you have here. A bit slow (does anyone else have this problem?) but I really like the concept. And a lot of the execution. Except the slowness. Tokyo Story is slow too, but I found that didn't bother me after awhile. Maybe the same with this site? Spout as Ozu flick. Maybe. Maybe not.