The summer blockbuster season has begun and well, it’s going off to a nice start as I saw a couple blockbusters in Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby which were both pretty good. Yet, it’s also that time where the Cannes Film Festival is happening as I saw a lot of good films during the duration of my Cannes Marathon and I made some discoveries. This is among the reasons why I like doing the marathon is because not only do I get the chance to watch films by filmmakers I don’t know much about but also get the chance to watch some classic movies in the process. It’s something I love to do and I’ll do it again next year but I’m going to do something different for next year’s Cannes Marathon as I would like to focus on films that won the Palme d’Or that I haven’t seen.
In the month of May, I saw a total of 39 films. 28 first-timers and 11 re-watches. Slightly up from last month as I focused solely on new films as I was gearing up for the Cannes Marathon. Of course, one of the first-timers was my Blind Spot assignment in Lovers on the Bridge.
Here are the top 10 first-timers that I saw for May 2013:
1. Enter the Void
2. Behind the Candelabra
3. Happy Together
4. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
5. Certified Copy
6. Secret Sunshine
7. In the House
8. Le Fils
9. Lenny
10. Z
Monthly Mini-Reviews:
Snow White and the Huntsman
While the film had some nice moments as far as re-telling the story of Snow White with some good casting moments in Chris Hemsworth as the Huntsman as well as Bob Hoskins, Eddie Marsan, Ian McShane, Nick Frost, and Ray Winstone as the dwarves. There were some issues in the film that included some parts of the story plus Kristen Stewart’s performance as Snow White which was quite flat as I ended up rooting for Charlize Theron evil queen character as she had some scene-stealing moments by going over-the-top.
The Five-Year Engagement
I like the people involved with this film and there’s some moments in that film that were very funny. Yet, I had some issues with this film. Notably the length as I felt that it needed more time in the editing room. Largely because there were scenes where the jokes ran for way too long while some parts of the third act also dragged things a bit when things get too serious. Still, there’s enough moments for me to recommend the film including a hilarious scene involving Emily Blunt and Alison Brie talking as Sesame Street characters.
The True Story of WrestleMania
Anyone who’s read my work know I’m a fan of pro wrestling although I’ve lately started not to watch it due to my frustrations with the WWE product as well as the fact that they don’t really do anything anymore. I saw this documentary on YouTube where even though they had some good content relating about its history. I felt they did a lot of revisionism with some of its history and there were a lot of things they skimped over such as the poor reception of WrestleMania IX, not much back-story on the Undertaker’s winning streak, and some of the other great matches in WrestleMania’s past. Plus, it was frustrating to watch considering how poor this year’s WrestleMania was as I felt I wasted my time watching it for free online.
Top 10 Re-Watches:
1. Wings of Desire
2. Looper
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. The Patriot
6. I Love You to Death
7. Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation
8. Superman-The Mad Scientist
9. Don Juan DeMarco
10. Virtuosity
Well, that is it for May. Next month will be the start of a big summer in which I will be seeing and reviewing many films by Woody Allen as part of my Auteurs series on him which will be separated into four parts. Another recurring project that will be returning this summer is the Favorite Film series as I’ve finally started work on an essay for the next part. One project that will not happen this year that I’ve decided to postpone for 2018 is the LiT10 project due to creative reasons where I couldn’t think of a lot of ideas to do and I wanted to do much more on a visual scale so I’m pushing it for five years later though I still plan to do something to celebrate the 10th anniversary for Lost in Translation.
For the month of June, there will be some serious film-watching as I hope to see new theatrical releases like Frances Ha, Before Midnight, Monsters University, Man of Steel, and The Bling Ring. The last of which I’m excited to see as I will update my first Auteurs essay on Sofia Coppola. Aside from the Woody Allen stuff, there will be reviews of films by Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach, Jean-Luc Godard, and John Cassavetes. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off.
© thevoid99 2013
Glad you enjoyed your Cannes marathon. Maybe I'll do something similar, and catch up with Palme d'Or winners.
ReplyDeleteBob Hoskins is in Snow White?! I thought he retired. I do find Kristen Stewart attractive, so I don't really think about her range as an actress. Haha, yeah, Charlize Theron is cool, easy to root for :)
Hope you like Frances Ha, Before Midnight, and Bling Ring. Look forward to those.
Yeah, Bob Hoskins is in that film and it's his last one. He was good but the film... not so much. I do think Kristen Stewart is attractive (and if you've seen her nude scenes in On the Road... she's got some nice tits) but I think she's losing more of her range due to the Twilight films as she used to do so much more prior to those films.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I am working on a list of those Daft Punk songs you want to me do. It might take me a couple of weeks to make a formidable list on those songs.
That is a solid month of film watching and reminds me that I need to re-watch The Patriot. Is the Toy Story Hawaiian short streaming somewhere?
ReplyDelete@3guys1movie-I don't know. I'm not sure if it's available on YouTube. I saw it on the Disney Channel when I was looking for something to watch as I never watch that channel due to the crap they play.
ReplyDelete@thevoid99: Look forward to your formidable Daft Punk top 10, take your time.
ReplyDelete@Chris-So far, I've covered the first 2 albums. I'm going to do their third as it's the one I'm not familiar with at all.
ReplyDeleteThen I'm going back to the new one though I love it as a whole while it's my mother's favorite record right now.