Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) - There were a few scenes where the long tracking shots really worked, but they're too infrequent to justify that as anything other than a gimmick. I enjoyed it but it felt very tryhard in ways that didn't seem like they were trying to make a statement about the industries it's satirizing (particularly the humour). It definitely has the makings of a masterpiece but is held back by these things, leaving us with just a pretty good movie. I don't think Inarritu has it in him tbh (haven't seen Babel yet though, could be an exception). On the upside, it helped me recognize how excellent Symbiopsychotaxiplasm is.
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome - A Thelemic parable of man, gods, and all that **** all drenched in gorgeous surreal lighting and colours. Prettier than Lucifer Rising.
River of Fundament - This is:
An epic
An opera
A satire
A book adaptation
A concert film
A procedural
Extreme
Surreal
Pornographic
A documentary
Three acts with a cast of around 1000 characters wherein writer Norman Mailer reincarnates three times into realities heavily inspired by his writings...and shit. There's a lot of shit. A man wraps a turd in gold, a transam gives birth to an engine, Milford Graves jams on a cow corpse in a sewer, someone gives birth to a bird, with each of the three acts being based on free improvisation performances that make heavy use of realistic space. One of the best films I've ever seen, highly recommended to anyone with an interest in experimental music or film who can stomach depravity (you will never be ready, might as well just jump right into the shit river).
Memoria - While visiting her sick sister in Colombia, Tilda Swinton is haunted by a recurring boom that only she appears to hear in this beautiful meditation on memory, colonialism, stolen trauma, perception, and isolation. Apichatpong's films always has intense sound design, but this movie seemed especially interested in directing your focus to the sound. Very lucky to have seen this in theatres, the whole scene at the farm is up there with Uncle Boonmee's cave scene and the Tropical Malady tiger confrontation as one of Apichatpong's best scenes. Going to try to catch it again while it's still on a theatre run.
And while I'm here, I'm pretty hyped for the Janus restoration of Inland Empire. They'll be showing that in theatres and you know I'm catching that bitch.
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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.
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