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chosen by Ietje
Notes: Ever since I saw āParis Texasā almost 30 years ago, I became instantly a huge fan of Wim Wenders but, to be honest, it had been a while since I saw one of his movies so it was really cool to see his last directorial effort with the film club. Well, it turned out to be at the same time such a simple but also such a complex movie after all. Indeed, at the end of the day, most of the running time is about some average guy cleaning some toilets in Tokyo (by the way, the public toilets there are actually quite impressive), listening to some vintage cassettes and reading some cheap books and thatās pretty much it. You donāt get to know him that much. How did he end up living like this? Who was he actually? Above all, the question I kept repeating myself was, was he actually happy? Indeed, he had created his own bubble and I have to admit that he seems to be quite content but setting such strict constraints to yourself and cutting all bridges with any people who knew you, is it really the answer? But then, and thatās probably the genius of this movie, are we much happier in our more conventional way of life, full of consumerism, meaningless chats and technological noise? I probably had a hard time to accept his choice because a part of myself is really inclined to follow a similar path but I wouldnāt last for long because another part of myself forces me to stay in touch with other people. Eventually, I strongly believed that the main character was the happiest not when he managed to strictly follow his Zen lifestyle but when some outsider did manage to actually disrupt it. Anyway, the damned thing was definitely intriguing, that's for sure.
(Jan. 2024)
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“Since this movie didnāt turn out to be a huge box-office success, I did lower my expectations but I still ended up watching this sequel in the movie theater after all. Unfortunately for DC, right now, everybody (myself included) are kind of fed up with the super-hero genre and it was probably not ” read more
Notes: It was in fact the 2nd short I saw with Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle and, even though I enjoyed more āThe Garageā, it was pretty good as well though. Above all, it was pretty cool to see Arbuckle working again with Buster Keaton. Indeed, Arbuckle was actually the one who helped Keaton launching his career and this short was one of the earliest movies starring Keaton which was of course really neat. Coming back on the movie itself, sure, it was pretty entertaining and some of the gags were really funny but the damned thing was still too messy and random, Iām afraid. Sure, you can argue that it was inherent to the genre but, in this case, it was even more chaotic than usual. There was also a 3rd guy in this movie who was involved in some rather acrobatic stunts but I guess he never managed to become as famous as Arbuckle and Keaton were.
Notes: It was in fact the 2nd short I saw with Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle and, even though I enjoyed more āThe Garageā, it was pretty good as well though. Above all, it was pretty cool to see Arbuckle working again with Buster Keaton. Indeed, Arbuckle was actually the one who helped Keaton launching his career and this short was one of the earliest movies starring Keaton which was of course really neat. Coming back on the movie itself, sure, it was pretty entertaining and some of the gags were really funny but the damned thing was still too messy and random, Iām afraid. Sure, you can argue that it was inherent to the genre but, in this case, it was even more chaotic than usual. There was also a 3rd guy in this movie who was involved in some rather acrobatic stunts but I guess he never managed to become as famous as Arbuckle and Keaton were. 
“To be honest, I have to admit that I donāt know much about Roscoe Fatty Arbuckleās work so I was quite glad to discover his work after all these years. In fact, Arbuckle was quite a huge star at the time but his career was completely derailed by some scandal at the beginning of the 20ās. Anywa” read more
“I wasnāt really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that it has been a while since I saw āWhat Women Wantā but, if I recall it correctly, I thought it was a decent comedy and it seemed to be a no-br” read more
“To be honest, I wasnāt expecting much from this movie but, since it was starring Gabrielle Union, I thought it might as well check it out. Well, Iām afraid the damned thing was just as lame as I expected. Indeed, right from the start, the story was just so generic and boring and, to make it wors” read more
Notes: The first interesting thing with this movie was how much it clearly stood from the comedies they made at the time, by Harold Lloyd himself but also by all his other colleague comedians. Indeed, there was in fact no visual gags, no slapstick, no elaborate seemingly hazardous stunts involved and, instead, they went for something dialogue-heavy. Fortunately, I thought that Lloyd did pull it off rather nicely. On the other hand, it was rather cringe-inducing to keep hearing Jake Mayo mentioning these āChinksā but, since the character was supposed to be a corrupt ignorant moron, I guess it was acceptable. Una Merkel was also pretty good as she had some of the best lines, even though I thought it was rather unlikely that Pet Pratt would decide to get married with Ezekiel Cobb. Eventually, even though I do believe that Harold Lloyd made the most of this material, the concept was still pretty thin and I wish it would have been slightly shorter. Concerning this satire of the politics in a small town in the US, sure, it was exaggerated but, on the other hand, I always thought that there was something bothering me about this country where you can vote only for 2 parties and 2 parties which are vastly similar after all on top of that. Obviously, it is not the same as the corruption displayed in this movie but the lack of choices between candidates did feel similar and hardly democratic.
Notes: The first interesting thing with this movie was how much it clearly stood from the comedies they made at the time, by Harold Lloyd himself but also by all his other colleague comedians. Indeed, there was in fact no visual gags, no slapstick, no elaborate seemingly hazardous stunts involved and, instead, they went for something dialogue-heavy. Fortunately, I thought that Lloyd did pull it off rather nicely. On the other hand, it was rather cringe-inducing to keep hearing Jake Mayo mentioning these āChinksā but, since the character was supposed to be a corrupt ignorant moron, I guess it was acceptable. Una Merkel was also pretty good as she had some of the best lines, even though I thought it was rather unlikely that Pet Pratt would decide to get married with Ezekiel Cobb. Eventually, even though I do believe that Harold Lloyd made the most of this material, the concept was still pretty thin and I wish it would have been slightly shorter. Concerning this satire of the politics in a small town in the US, sure, it was exaggerated but, on the other hand, I always thought that there was something bothering me about this country where you can vote only for 2 parties and 2 parties which are vastly similar after all on top of that. Obviously, it is not the same as the corruption displayed in this movie but the lack of choices between candidates did feel similar and hardly democratic. 
“In contrary to Charles Chaplin or Buster Keaton, I havenāt watched so many movies with Harold Lloyd so I thought I might as well check this one out. Well, the first interesting thing with this movie was how much it clearly stood out from the comedies they made at the time, by Harold Lloyd himself ” read more
“Since Iām a huge fan of āBoratā, of course, I was quite eager to check this sequel. Eventually, it obviously didnāt turn out to be such a pop-culture phenomenon like its predecessor was but it was to be expected. Itās too bad because the context when this movie was made and released was re” read more
“I wasnāt really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Kristen Stewart, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, to be honest, Iām afraid the damned thing didnāt really work after all. First of all, even though I do have a weak spot for Kristen Stewart, I think she ” read more