#Watching BADLANDS

Droning voice over and copious shots of fields. It *must* be Terence Malick.
A great piece of Americana with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as the most kickback killers with denim and sideburns.
Violent but never exploitative, a crime drama that absorbs.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/badlands/

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#Watching #3000 MILES TO GRACELAND

Starts off well enough, but then devolves into crime movie clichés and empty violence.
What begins as an excellent piece of pulp fiction gets lost without much of a story. You like Costner and Russell in their respective roles, but scenes go by without much happening...then there's a killing just to wake you up.
The sideburns are sharper than most of the #movie.
But if you like Elvis song covers and the long awaited onscreen duo of Ice-T and David Arquette you don't have to drive 3000 miles.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/3000-miles-to-graceland/

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#Watching BETTER WATCH OUT

Wonderfully sinister Christmas #horror that's a lot meaner than I initially believed based on the trailer.
Starring the annoying white rapper from The Visit and his sister from The Visit playing his crush.
Awkward, but at least he's not rapping.
Bucks formula for most of its runtime, an antidote to the usual dreck shoved down your throat during the holidays. You keep expecting it to soften, but it remains satisfying and sinister.
Short running time keeps everything fresh and crispy.
If you like Christmas but hate Christmas #movies, put on your favorite ugly sweater and see this with none of your family.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/better-watch-out/

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#Watching SUNSET BOULEVARD

Norma Desmond is a crazy b...
Billy Wilder's satire holds up remarkably well. Still feels like a kick to your shins. Wonderfully over the top acting that never feels like Too Much.
Deserving of every nomination it got. Great #movie Make sure you're ready for your close up and see this again.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/sunset-boulevard/

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#Watching OPERATION FORTUNE

Guy Ritchie's Asteroid City.

Feels like the first draft of every Ritchie #movie ever made, but it's still entertaining on its own terms thanks to a wonderful comic performance by Josh Hartnett.
Derivative from the first frame to the last, but you're not looking for originality when you watch a Guy Ritchie movie.
Jason Statham cutting and pasting every performance he's ever given.
Aubrey Plaza not even bothering with a character and the movie is better for it.
If you've seen any Ritchie movie, you've already seen this.
Cary Elwes, along with MI:7 stars in #movies in unnecessarily long title.

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#Watching THE INNOCENTS (2021)

Nordic birth control.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/the-innocents-2021/

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#Watching ALL EYES

Normally my eyes glaze over when I hear the word "podcast", but it's been a late week at work and All Eyes was only 80 minutes.
But it felt longer.
It's about a disgraced podcaster (zzzz) that goes to get one story to save his career or something.
The performers are engaging enough that it keeps you hoping for something, anything to happen onscreen that makes it worth your time even though the production design is barely a step up from public tv. Not that interesting visually, and the meager effects fail during a key moment.
One of those #movies that's not as bad as you think it's going to be even though it's nowhere near good.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/all-eyes/

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#Watching INDIGNATION

One of those "literary" movies that probably read better on the page than translated on the screen. Everything feels so static, and every motivation and reveal telegraphed.
The actors are doing their worldly best, but it feels like a conversation you're forced to watch involving people you're friends of friends with on Facebook.
You won't hate the movie, and that's the highest praise it will get.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/indignation-2016/

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#Watching SAFE

Todd Haynes' paranoid drama is one of the scariest non-horror #movies I've ever seen.
Early Julianne Moore performance is still one of her best ever.
What are you willing to give up to keep you "safe"? You be surprised at the lengths some will go.
Peter Friedman shines as an open faced cult leader. A lot of what he preaches makes sense...until it doesn't. Insidious to the nth.
Scariest scene- A bunch of white people dancing. So unsettling.
One of the best movies of the 90s.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/safe/

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#Watching THE WHALE

A24's other prestige Oscar magnet has awards acting in nearly every scene. Most of it connects, when it doesn't it feels like A Serious Afterschool Special about accepting others or whatever.
Waited on this after awards season just to see it fresher without the hyperbole.
Darren Aronofsky at an 11 for most of its runtime. Subtlety goes out the rainy window.
Compelling for most if its runtime, despite the single location. Every music cue tells you exactly how to feel.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/the-whale-2022/

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#Watching THE ANDERSON TAPES

Basic heist #movie directed by Sydney Lumet, starring Sean Connery and a very young Christopher Walken in his first movie.
Takes you through the mundane steps of organizing a heist. If you're a fan of the genre it's catnip even if plodding at times.
There are some relative surprises once the actual heist starts, but nothing you haven't seen before except for the sideburns and afros.
You know what you're getting into watching something like this, and it's worth 90 minutes for Connery and Walken's hair.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/the-anderson-tapes/

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#Watching SURF NAZIS MUST DIE

Their job is beach.
#80s cult kitsch in which the title is the most creative thing about this Troma joint. For an 80 minute film it does drag on while you wait for Nazis to die.
"I'm more interested in something that'll take the head off a honky at 20 paces!"- I haven't read it, but I'm sure that's lifted directly from Mein Kampf.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/surf-nazis-must-die/

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#Watching CITIZEN KANE

Rewatching it before seeing Mank.
Not much to say about what's considered one of the best films of all time.
Watching The Unrated Version Complete with--
-The Dance Battle between Kane and Leland, Cameo by Big Daddy Kane.
-The Time Warp scene with Tim Curry oddly spliced. I can see why the cut it out.
-More scenes with Useless Hawkeye.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/citizen-kane/

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#Watching JOY RIDE

Entertaining if standard R-rated #comedy with 4 Asian women (somehow Akwafina isn't in this) as leads instead of 4 pudgy white guys and maybe a token _______ (insert non white race here) to "balance things out".
You laugh and are grossed out in all the right places. All the lessons are learned at the appropriate times.
As an Asian person, I think I'm related to at least a quarter of the cast and crew.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/joy-ride-2023/

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#Watching ICE CREAM MAN

An oddly eclectic cast (David Warner? Olivia Hussey? the guy from The People's Court?) pepper this 90s kitsch horror movie with Clint Howard playing the guy you'd always expect Clint Howard to play.
After Howard makes his first appearance, the film gets inert with so much time between kills and not enough to keep you interested.
Featuring idiot movie cops and kids who should be dead.
The only thing that keeps you slightly invested is Clint Howard, and even he can't carry this past the midpoint with jokes that flatline as they're being said. Points for trying. Yawns for execution.
Just eat actual ice cream instead of seeing this.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/ice-cream-man/

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#Watching THE BLOB

This B-movie classic shows us the dangers of being attacked by the world's largest serving of cherry pie filling.
There's nothing particularly scary about any of this, though you can't help but smile at everything you see on screen.
Movies were 80 cents a ticket. Wow.
This is the whitest movie town I have ever seen. I thought I saw a black person during the scene where everyone runs out of the theater but I couldn't be sure. Maybe that was Mayor Goldie Wilson's aunt or something.
Watch it...if you dare.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/the-blob/

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#Watching #FRENZY

Alfred Hitchcock's second to the last film and he don't give an f...
Gratuitous nudity and violence, Hitch is letting it all hang out.
Despite knowing the killer early, there's still a solid amount of suspense through most of the running time.
There's mordant dark humor peppered throughout, and the jokes land despite yourself.
If you haven't seen it in a while, there's a lot that still holds up. And the stuff that doesn't (from a 70s point of view) is unintentionally funny.
Lovely! Lovely! Lovely!
Bob's your uncle?
The title itself feels pretty lazy though.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/frenzy/

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#Watching THE GOOD HOUSE

Apparently it's not good to drink excessively...

One of Sigourney Weaver's best late career performances even is the arc is more than familiar.
There are enough keenly felt beats that gloss over the Lifetime moments. Weaver's Dave costar Kevin Kline is a wonderful foil.
See it for Weaver and Kline. Something you can watch with your parent even if it brings up uncomfortable questions like why they let Uncle Gary into your room when you were just 13 knowing what he would become and the dead bodies left in the wake of such a large tragedy.
Good but not great.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/the-good-house/

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#Watching ENYS MEN

70s set glacially paced folk horror movie in which nothing much happens.
A character literally writes "No Change".
It takes the midpoint for something to kinda sorta occur, and if you're afraid of lichen, then you'll be likin' this movie.
Oddly enough, plants growing constitutes a plot turn...and watching grass grow is how seeing this feels more most of its runtime.
Could have been an effective short film but it's a stunted a feature that wears out its welcome quickly.
Did the main character steal the red jacket from the little girl in Don't Look Now? Because that would be mean and more compelling than anything you actually watch.
Enys Men- Watch some grass grow.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/enys-men/

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#Watching BATTLE ROYALE

This is what happens when you make kids wear those dippy school uniforms.

https://letterboxd.com/noeljpenaflor/film/battle-royale/

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