2019 - A Theme for Every Month

Spot on

+
Eighth Grade
Mid 90's
The Florida Project

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I agree it's not great, but I really enjoyed it. I'm also a huge fan of Sam Rockwell, so my rating was a little bit higher than yours.

Thanks for checking in Ms. M

A lot of people's ratings appear to be higher than mine on this one - that Rockwell feller must have absolutely legions of fans (maybe it's because of the big hit single Somebody's Watching Me?)

Coming-of-age drama with some nice artistic flourishes that mixes grief, loneliness, love and obsession to splendid effect in a tale that has more depth than might initially be apparent.

With a cast that's fairly mixed in terms of nationality there are moments initially where one can be forgiven for wondering if their performances will gel together as a whole - but it doesn't take too long before such qualms are forgotten as all the central characters are played strongly enough, with Patricia Gozzi giving the standout performance as the young teen with some deep-seated psychological issues. She really is that good in this that one does have to wonder what she might have gone on to achieve cinematically had she not opted instead for a private life away from the camera.

Acting is certainly not the film's only strength though, the cinematography is perfectly on point with some lovely camerawork and even the occasional forays into arthouse territory shouldn't deter a more casual audience as they are neither prolonged nor particularly interrupt the flow. Then there's also the sublime score, which is never intrusive but compliments the visuals very nicely indeed.

This might all make Rapture sound like the perfect film but there are minor quibbles, such as drifting a little too far into melodrama at times, not every transition is seamless and the climax feels a little rushed whilst personally slightly more time spent on all the various inter-relationships wouldn't have gone amiss.

Rapture may not be to everyone's taste but it's certainly a very well constructed film and for me fully deserves a

That looks quite interesting. Might check it out.

Would love to hear your opinion if you do.

Bittersweet comedy drama that for me becomes more effective the longer it goes on.

I have to be honest and say that as a first watch of this seemingly well respected film I was initially somewhat disappointed with what appeared to be a pretty standard affair that employed some fairly stock characters. Admittedly some of the humour was amusing, the cinematic parodies with their delightfully juvenile nature being a perfect fit for the characters, but the voiceover narration and general style of humour was hardly unfamiliar territory.

Thankfully though the film grows nice and organically and once the humanity and heart, which initially are kept below that veneer of humour, are allowed to come more to the fore proceedings are very much improved imo. In general the acting is unremarkable but satisfactory, the two leads being the only ones really asked to show any range with both acquitting themselves well enough.

The major strength of Me And Earl And The Dying Gir is in the writing - any film that openly lies to its audience in order to better manipulate their emotions had better be well written and thankfully this one is, carrying the audience to a very effective, and in one part quite beautiful, closing sequence. Had it been less well written I would certainly have taken umbrage at being so overtly manipulated. I didn't though, and with the feeling that a rewatch might just see me rate it a little higher, I'm comfortable enough in giving it a + for now.

Ah here's me only thinking about what to watch and you've done 4 already! Quite fancy the last two you watched and will get round to them as I trust your judgement.

When I mentioned the theme for this month the wife didn't exactly look enthusiastic (to put it mildly) so I thought I'd best get a few out the way before she returns this Friday

Not sure I have anything left that suits now haha, will have to check exactly what's on the DVR.

p.s. You're far more trusting of my judgement than I am then, probably should add that I appear to have a bit of a soft spot for films depicting teens with life-threatening illnesses

edit: Looks like I have one more on DVR that qualifies

That's too, but mostly because he is so handsome



and always plays a decent guys

I'll believe that if you say so, I've honestly no idea why I get mistaken for him so often

Animated teen romantic drama with fantasy elements that sadly imo fails to fully realise its potential.

Both the artwork and animation are decent, if a little rustic at times, and although personally the story wasn't that engaging to begin with it did gradually become of more interest and even though by the time the closing credits ran I was still somewhat lukewarm about it I can definitely see the potential appeal to others.

The central character is for the most part quite nicely presented and the tale when rooted in reality is fairly decent, albeit a little simplistic and more interested in being 'cute' at times than developing the plot, but for me the brief forays into the fantasy side were some of the weaker and least interesting parts of proceedings and the whole would probably have benefitted from them either being given more of a role in proceedings or dropped completely.

Sadly the film's 'theme' tune, John Denver's country classic Take Me Home Country Roads, was a tad overused, featuring over not only both the opening and closing credits but in different guises at various points between the two. And what's with the almost total lack of road safety awareness portrayed throughout a tale clearly designed to appeal to teens?

Whisper Of The Heart certainly has a level of charm with its depiction of teenage life and self discovery but unfortunately it took far too long for me to begin to warm to it and as such I can't really award it more than a

here's my first Debruary offering:

The Story of Yonosuke directed by Shuichi Okita

We meet Yonosuke Yokomichi arriving in Tokyo from his backwater small town to attend university. His funny name and twitchy mannerisms combine with his socially inept attempts at making friends cause laughter amongst some fellow students, but endear him to others who are outsiders in their own way. Yonosuke develops into a loyal unjudgemental friend, who years later when his friends and acquaintences remember him - some only just - realise that he actually touched their lives and changed them in some way.

This is a film to make you smile. Yonosuke is one of life's happy untroubled people who takes life as it comes. His attempts to find a girlfriend are very funny and when he has a girl chasing him, he's all shy. The fact that she's warm and adorably openhearted makes for a delightfully innocent little romance. It's a long film at 2hours 40mins, but I didn't find it dragged at all. Clever format of Yonosuke's life interspersed with sequences of friends reminiscing when they're older, makes looking back on their youth funny but then also gives it a lot of pathos. It's a charming film with kooky characters like a lot of Japanese comedy/romance/teenage films, but this one has an edge of nostalgia in a life affirming way.



edited cos I can't spell Debruary ...d'oh

Hey Christine, many thanks for joining in again

A Story of Yonosuke sounds interesting and quite possibly the sort of thing that would appeal to me - appreciate the post comment to let me know how you watched it, who knows maybe it'll become available to me at some point too, it's gone into my ever growing list of films to try to get round to before my ultimate exhale so should that happen hopefully I won't forget.

Loving how you're always coming up with things I've never seen (and most of the time not even heard of)

S'ok, neither can anybody else apparently

I've managed to add another couple of possible Debruary watches but am gonna take a bit of a break now so I'm hopefully able to contribute something to the thread again later in the month.

The Florida Project 2017

Willem Dafoe and the kid actress were great. Beautiful cinematography, the delivery and story moved me..

Cheers for checking back in J-C, I'm waiting for Film4 or the like to show that one - probably only another year or so to go now

Hey there Ms. M, sure sounds like it fits so thanks for posting and I'll pop it onto my list to watch out for