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So much joy with Hal Hartley's cinema. One of the best voices out of late 80s/first 90s of independent US cinema. Highly recommended. Start with The Long Island Trilogy and then move to The Henry Fool Trilogy. If you're still with him, try the rest.

The new Bong Joon-ho, Parasite, is so much better than Okja. He's back at being good after 10 years of moderate dullness.

^ Now that sounds interesting.

^Yes. Watched "Joy" a couple of days ago, not impressed at all. Mostly series nowadays. :)

Not really much new here, but I went through a Jonathan Demme marathon just for the sake of it, and this came out: https://letterboxd.com/muberti/list/jonathan-demme/

What a master piece,

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

and very hard to digest.

After that movie Klimov never made another one.

^ Stable in my top 3 of war films I love the most.

Some recent stuff worth a view:

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
Admittedly from the title alone I wasn't about to start this. But it's a politically dense story of a Mumbai devastated by corruption, unexpectedly tense and violent. Action choreography still needs some work, but it's good to see India approaching social issues within popular cinema dynamics.

The White Storm 2: Drug Lords
I was expecting more here, but I know Herman Yau is not the best from the Hong Kong old school. Still dark and desperate, because that's what noir means in Hong Kong cinema.

A Home with a View
This is a better Herman Yau. A black comedy on the impossible housing problem in Hong Kong. I've been there, I've seen what Yau is talking about. You laugh here, but sadness inevitably kicks in when you think of the condition poorer families have to live with.

And a special treat from the past:

Kansas City Confidential
Incredibly tight noir from the 50s. Phil Karlson is a massively underrated director.

After a bit of struggle in finding his films, I finished exploring Tobe Hooper's career. The result is my usual list: https://letterboxd.com/muberti/list/tobe-hooper/

The essentials are the first 8 entries, although nothing beats that #1 for me.

Because of you I made a list of his movies to put into my playlist. :)

^ Great!

I can safely say he is my favourite horror director as of now, even though my mind knows well that John Carpenter outnumbers him in terms of great films. But despite his flaws, once you get to know his style Hooper really digs into you.

I watched John Wick 2 last night. not sure if it was because I watched it after deadpool 1 and 2 (which I really enjoyed) . but it was quite lovely looking (Rome looks amazing mostly) but stupid AF.
I got really really bored of Keanu shooting kneecap off at close range then grabbing them, rolling around a bit on the floor, maybe shooting someone else, then shooting the guy in the head rinse - repeat. JUST SHOOT THEM IN THE HEAD FIRST OFF you clearly can
some of it was so dark i just couldn't be bothered, all those guys carrying flashlights... reminds me of LotR "we have taught them not to carry torches" how hard is it to shoot someone/thing with a big light at the front of it with a fucking assault rifle? (full disclosure - never shot any proper gun in an assault situation)
i think they wrote the story on a napkin on the way to the storyboarding or something... unless he gets a fucking mecha suit with rockets I'm not going to be looking forward to John wick 3 in any way.

^ I found both the 1st and the 2nd really boring in terms of action choreography.

^ john wick? at least the first had the whole secret 'hiding in plain sight' assassin world of honour and servitude to get into. which just feels stupid in number 2.

Yes, I'm not talking about plot, just the action and what the films does with it.

Only reason I'm going to watch the third one is for Halle Berry.

It's so hard to find capable genre directors these days. Tonight I'll celebrate Halloween (which has become bigger and bigger in Italy because we couldn't devise another holiday to dress up and demand candies) with a couple of films from Johannes Roberts. I read good things about him, and I can't say no to sharks and cool ladies trying to escape from them.

^ Quite enjoyable flicks, if you're into that sort of things. Silly films, yes, and predictable, but Roberts knows his craft and I want to know more about him now.

This weekend i digested three movies, all from N´flix. First out was "Mary Shelley", not that good, but ok for me since I were a little bit curious about her life. The historical accuracy I know nothing about in this film, but it gave at least a hint of how things probably were.

Second film were "Darkest Hour" with Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, a very good movie, even if it were not so true to actual events. But the real gem of the movies is the last one. "Wind River", really good in the crime, drama, mystery genre. See link;

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5362988/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Yesterday it were time for "I Daniel Blake" by Ken Loach. English social realism at it´s very best. Great movie. :)