media musings & reviews
The trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird (2017) dropped this evening and it’s just one of the four films Timothée Chalamet is featuring in this year. This boy’s star is rising and rising fast — not least of all because of early buzz for his role in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name — and it’s easy to see why. Chalamet is the kind of actor that exudes presence despite being so young, and no matter the role or movie — no matter the mediocrity of other elements around him — he delivers.
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) trilogy – or single-film extravaganza, depending on how you view it – is a definitive exercise in fantasy storytelling. The most universal, heartwarming and heartaching story resides beneath the costumes, set design, and special effects work. These films obviously make a statement, especially through characterisation.
Continue reading ““It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered.””
I spent a lot of November and December 2016 getting into Gael García Bernal’s filmography. What started as a random choice to watch A Little Bit of Heaven (2011) began a quest to finish as much of his work as I could. It didn’t help that Amazon had such a good deal on his films at the time, and it was fairly easy to acquire even the most bizarre ones.
So over those two months, I watched thirty films starring García Bernal. He has now become my most-watched actor of all time, clocking in at thirty-four films total. And I’ve never felt better about myself as a movie lover because he is very, very talented. None of his performances have left me wishing he’d done something else. That’s not to say that all of his films are gems. I’ve found that many of them are only okay at best, and some are outright terrible, despite the fact that he’s either worked with a director I admire or his own acting isn’t the thing to blame (it is oftentimes the best part of those bad movies).
I’ve decided then to compile a list of my favourites. Some of it is probably expected, yet others feel vastly underrated. Also, I just want to point out that I haven’t seen Neruda (2016) yet, but I’m expecting that the moment I do, one of these films will probably be bumped off the list.
sher horowitz 