Fourteenth

Suspiria (2018) by Luca Guadagnino

Having watched the original Suspiria from the 70s I have already had an understanding of the plot of the movie. Witches and dancing. But after watching the original there was something that I found lacking, the dancing itself. The original was great as it was very nice with so much vivid colors in the setting and how it was edited which was very different from how the remake was, very gritty and neutral colors were used. But what I loved about the remake was all the dancing. How the choreography was used as some sort of witch spell that was used to control, as a weapon. Such as in the scene of Susie dancing which was cut with Olga having her body crushed and distorted by some mystical force (one of my favorite scenes) was so organic and beautifully made and shot. What I liked about the movie as well was how there were random zoom shots that made the scene more eerie and confusing. The dream sequences that were split with random images of hair clogged toilets, bloody faces, and weird colorful wispy clouds that hovered over Susie.

This movie was AMAZING. The kind of horror that lingers, not over the top and simply too gore-y that you cant unsee or even making it hard to look away. Everything about the movie was masterfully crafted with its costumes and colors that helped set the mood for the scenes and the movie overall but also the actors and their incredible acting. What I was so amazed with was the twist in having Susie as actually Mater Suspiriorum because it seemed so impossible yet possible at the same time all from the actions of Susie even from the beginning of the movie when we first see her in the train station with the sign Suspiria above her head which other than being the title of the movie could have helped us piece together the fact that she was Mater Suspiriorum. Dakota Johnson as Susie was actually pretty good especially since I only knew her from THAT “BDSM” movie. And ofcourse Tilda Swinton can absolutely slay anything that she has to do. Comparing it to the original may not be right but I cannot help but love the remake more as other than it having more dancing which I appreciated there was more depth to the characters and a better backstory for Susie which was cool.

In the end I would very much recommend this movie to horror geeks and just cinephiles in general. This is such a great movie to present what horror is all about. Having it linger on you with all its creepiness and gore is unable to be brushed off anytime soon. I’m happy that this was the last movie I got to watch for this class and I’m truly going to miss having to watch films weekly. But in the end yes please watch Suspiria because it really is such a great horror movie.

Thirteenth

Volver by Pedro Almodóvar

Volver revolved around the lives of a family of women, Raimunda (played by Penelope Cruz), with her sister Sole (played by Lola Duenas), her daughter Agustina (played by Blanca Portillo), and their mother Irene (played by Carmen Maura) as they deal with everyday family issues and problems with a little side of murder and so called resurrection. The story was full of surprises and twists that were very ‘only there for the shock value’ sort of things in my opinion. Yet beyond that I truly enjoyed the film and the colorful world that it presented. What was so different from the other films that we watched for the class was how familial the themes of the movie were. It was also nice to have a very female centered empowering family oriented one at that. I also enjoyed the setting because it was different from the very cold and vast earthy environments that were used in the other films. The movie was set in a somewhat suburban and colorful environment which I enjoyed.

The plot though very dramatic with incest, murder, and arson were all quite heavy yet the movie’s tone was one that was light and simple to understand. At the end of the day what was important was the bond of these women and how they were able to rise up even with these issues setting aside their differences towards forgiveness. In a sense the movie was like ‘coming back’, returning to what once was that is familiar and safe. And what other way to feel this comfort than with your family? With women who have raised you to help inspire you to be who you are today. What was so interesting about this is that even with the family confessing all these things and having there mother somewhat come back from the dead, they do not seem to bother that much about and continue on. The love and respect I had for these women! They had to go through so much trauma and pain but they still stood up for themselves and took life by its balls and just went on! Raimunda got that restaurant even with having to suffer abuse from her father and her horrible husband. Irene got to confess to her daughters and be free from the guilt and be able to atone for the sins she committed.

Over all I really enjoyed this movie and the importance it gave to family. That we can be able to forgive and move on from the past to repair and create a better future with the people that we love. Although I wished there was more to the end other than the promise of Raimunda and Irene to fix their relationship but to actually see it happening would have been a very nice way to wrap everything up. In the end I highly recommend this movie for the plot and the great acting. Also especially with us Filipinos having a very high value on family and our relationships.

Twelfth

Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas

I absolutely ADORED this movie. I never really expected to enjoy this so much but I really did. Although the plot may be simple enough, a middle aged actress named Maria Enders (portrayed by Juliette Binoche) comes back into the foray by playing the older lover (Helena) in a lesbian drama (Maloja Snake) wherein back in the day she played the younger lover (Sigrid) who will now be played by the troubled and scandalous young actress Jo-Ann Ellis (portrayed by Chloe Grace Moretz), there was so much more to the story that went beyond. Out of all the very dramatic and somber toned movies that we watched, I think I enjoyed Clouds of Sils Maria the most.

Watching the relationship of Maria and her assistant Valentine (portrayed by Kristen Stewart) unfurl made the movie worthwhile for me. The tension albeit sometimes sexual was evident and there were many times that I wanted to scream at the both of them to just kiss or do anything to confess what was really going on between them. As Maria was preparing for the role she would often ask Valentine to help read lines with her but then all of a sudden it felt as if both the things they were saying as mere characters of the play and their true selves as actress and assistant started to blur together. It was obvious from the beginning that Maria did not want to play the cynical, old lover that was Helena because she could not let go of herself as Sigrid who is young and more full of life. Yet Valentine tries to help her see past that because change is inevitable and something that should be embraced. After all the tension which broke into a huge fight ending on the mountains towards Maloja’s Pass to see the snake like clouds pass between the mountains. Valentine disappears and is never heard of in the movie again. The scene after there huge fight wherein the movie beautifully showcases the passing of the clouds and the beauty of it all was absolutely breath taking. The story then jumps to the nearing of the play wherein somehow Maria has realized that change is inevitable even if she was still somewhat stubborn about it in trying to change Jo-Ann’s acting technique. Yet it was so subtle, the change in Maria herself but it was there.

In the end, I highly recommend the film as it tells the story of these women and change so elegantly and all in all it was just so classy to me for some reason in the best way. Juliette Binoche played the character so well, making you sympathize and root for her all the way and I hope to watch more of her films in the future. Shockingly enough as well I did not know Kristen Stewart could play a role as well as this since I’m coming from someone who did not enjoy the Twilight saga movies. With that aside, I loved this movie a whole lot and will definitely suggest this to my other cinephile friends.

Eleventh

Heavy Trip by Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren

“Other guys can play hockey and drive around chasing pussy. We play metal.” Turo narrates to the audience as his band plays hard core metal in the basement of one of his band mates. I’m pretty sure that describes a whole lot of the movie from just that line in the beginning. Heavy Trip is a great film that had me laughing and having a whole new respect for heavy metal bands (but something I still would not listen to in my free time however).

Seen as homosexuals, hippies, or even drug pushers by some, Turo Lotvonen, Pasi, and Jynkky are so much more than that. They go beyond the stereotypes of who they are physically, a heavy metal band whose members have long hair that has not taken a shower in x amount of days. Their story of going from a bunch of amateur musicians playing “symphonic, post-apocalyptic, reindeer-grinding, Christ-abusing, extreme war pagan, Fennoscandian metal” in a basement above a reindeer slaughter farm to going on an adventure with a mental institution patient that they busted out and a dug up coffin of a dead body (spoiler: it was Jynkky’s) to play at a Norwegian music festival as a band named “Impaled Rektum”. Going beyond all the crazy events and funny mishaps that the band goes through (such examples being Turo wrestling an animal, maybe a possum? in a local zoo or him having intense stage fright that leads to some very violent puking) the movie has a whole lot of heart and gives a win for the underdogs. The protagonists have a whole lot of passion and love for what they do even with people judging them and only seeing them negatively. What’s so wrong if their ‘thing’ just so happens to be playing heavy metal music? They are proud and free enough to do what they want and chase after their dreams no matter what obstacles stood in their way, sticking it to The Man and also for Turo’s case, getting the girl. In the end although they did get arrested just as Turo said, it is not the end of their band, ending the movie with a sense of hope for the future of Impaled Rektum.

I really enjoyed this move. It was really funny and light hearted compared to the intense and deep plots that our previous movies had. In a sense there was not anything ‘heavy’ about the movie at all except for the music itself. The plot was nothing but light, enjoyable, and easy to follow. The kind of comedy that although slapstick and kind of crazy it still made sense for the characters to follow through with it. It kind of reminded me of the movie “Almost Famous” that it also followed a somewhat up and coming rock band (but in the eyes of a teenage journalist who became their somewhat groupie). Over all I give this movie two thumbs up and would highly recommend even if you were not a heavy metal enthusiast.

Tenth

Raw by Julia Ducournau

The first time I watched Raw I could not stop thinking about it days after. It really is one of those horror movies that leaves you disturbed, shocked, confused, and for me wanting a lot more. I was never really a horror movie fan until I saw this movie and watching it for the second time during class helped cement my love for the horror genre. Jump scares and slasher killer horror genres never really scared me, sometimes I would find it funny even. But this movie really changed how I view horror. That it can be simple, not needing a killer chasing after his victims with an intense score in the background with the villain laughing maniacally, but can still be disturbing and brings fear and unease to its viewers. I really love this movie because just as what it is named, it is truly so raw; from the acting, the protagonists’ relationships and even to the meat she was eating all these elements created such a masterful film.

The story revolves around Justine (who is a vegetarian), a Freshman in taking up veterinary school just like her older sister Alexia. Something stirs in Justine who suddenly starts craving for meat after having her first taste of it in the form of a rabbit kidney as their first hazing experience into the school. She starts eating raw chicken and then after sometime she had a taste of real human flesh in the form of her sister’s severed finger. The progression into her cannibalistic self was so eerie and made sense once it was established that Alexia, her sister, also was a cannibal. More over was it a horror film but the plot emphasizes the relationship of Alexia and Justine and Justine’s road to finding her true self, a sort of ‘coming of age’ trope but with a whole lot of blood and gore.

This is what I loved about the movie because other than it being horrific and bloody there was a way in which oddly enough through cannibalism she was able to be who she was meant to be. Since it actually ran in the family (it was revealed that her mom as well was also a cannibal) she finally got to be free to choose and get something for herself rather than always having to be conformed into what society deems as normal. Raw goes beyond into the thinking of what it takes to be a woman trying to find herself in such a closed and oppressing world and makes its protagonist so out of the realms of what is normal and makes her a cannibal.

I just really love this move a whole lot. With the amazing acting from both Alexia played by Ella Rumpf and ofcourse Justine who was played by Garance Marillier, the actresses really helped to bring the movie to life. The story yet unconventional could be able to resonate with a lot of women who may be going through trying to find themselves (minus the eating human flesh element)

Ninth

The Edukators by Hans Weingartner

The movie was very interesting. Watching a more political driven and thought provoking movie was quite different from the weird and crazy that we have been seeing in class. It was nice to have an understanding of what Germany was going through during this time and having it so well named, The Edukators. With the plot revolving around 3 teenage activists who rearrange furniture and items from upper class homes yet never stealing anything but identifying themselves as “The Edukators”. There is some weird tension between the three as Jule and Peter are seeing each other yet Jan has feelings for Jule. The story begins when after Jule and Jan “edukating” (yes I will use that word now) the home of someone Jule had a debt to, a wealthy businessman named Hardenberg who catches them in the act of retrieving back Juel’s cellphone. They kidnap Hardenberg and then take him to a remote island to deal with the hostage.

The movie then shows us the different sides of how to act in the new modern capitalistic society. There are these 3 teenagers who are idealistic, dreaming of dismantling the system to create a whole new order as they have been exploited and cheated by society. What would it mean to be truly free? Should we be able to take a stand against those of the higher classes and fight for our rights for equality? or just be someone like Hardenberg who we learn was just like these teenagers who were hopeful, but has now changed his ways and followed what society deemed was the only way to move forward, to become corporate and somehow loose all the ideals you once fought for.

And from the movie, I truly did become in a way, educated. It made me think what does it truly mean to want to start change? To actually be a part of something that will be able to affect our society and somehow radically change it. Is that even still possible? Whether you may be one of the 3 teens or have turned into Hardenberg and rather just go with what society dictates of you they are both highly plausible and not something that should be taken against you. Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and opinions and I think the main take away from this film for me was that we should be able to just coexist with whatever political ideologies you may stand for. To respect one another and be able to see each other as people who are more than just their political stances.

This movie was quite enjoyable and was a good movie to ponder and discuss on after watching. Although I did not really enjoy the relationship / love triangle aspect of the movie as it becomes a sort of cliche side story to an already interesting plot. Overall I found the relationship funny and not really something that I found value adding to the overall story. But the conversations between the teenagers and Hardenberg made the move so special.

Eighth

Timecrimes by Nacho Vigalondo

This film was quite the entertaining ride. It really caught me off guard how the narrative progressed because I genuinely thought it would be a sort of slasher horror film that would end in the protagonist’s death. In the beginning I did not expect for the time travel aspect to be a part of the plot because there was never an indication from the movies aesthetics that it would take this turn. The time travelling was confusing at times but it helped reason with the earlier missing plot points that made you go “ah, so that’s why he did what he did”. As the story goes back and forth to deepen the plot I kept anticipating the cause and effects of each of his actions.

Yet the movie surprised me as a time travel thriller that was exciting and really kept me on my toes wondering what would happen next. The film started off simple, a husband and wife going about their day but suddenly the husband, Hector, sees something odd beyond the fences of his home. It was a wild trip from that point on wards. Seeing everything unfold and seeing how he had to follow through with these all the wrong things pilling on top of each other. It was shocking to watch how he had to kill an innocent woman and having to have three versions of himself reliving the day over and over. It was quite scary at times because in the beginning you never realize the madness in Hector until he acted upon it. The slow and steady decent to him becoming his own enemy and making that day his own personal and living hell. All three Hectors sort of blurred into each other wherein we would have to watch the same events and connecting why and how the events took place. You do not know whether to sympathize with the Hectors or would rather see them as a villain. You sympathize with him because he is just an average man protecting himself and his wife but then you also see him as a villain in him having to be the reason for someone’s death and being the cause for a temporary paradox that affected lives.

I enjoyed the movie a lot as I have never seen a time travelling movie such as this and with an added thriller/horror added to it. It was action packed and fun to see how each event unfolded. In the end you see how much man would do to resolve his problems and yet want to avoid it at all costs. I would recommend this movie to people who may be into these time travelling science fiction-y drama because as stated it sort of deviates from the average as it adds more depth with it being a thriller/horror. The actors especially Hector played by Karra Elejalde was brilliant making the viewers hooked on to the story wanting to see how everything played out in the end.

Seventh

TrollHunter by André Øvredal

What does it mean to believe in something? Is to see something with your very own eyes the easiest way to finally understand that something is real? The movie Trollhunter made me think how do we truly start to believe in something and to what extent are we able to reach to be able for others to start believing as well?

I will be honest in saying that this movie was not my favorite. I rank it the lowest from all the other movies we have watched for this class. There was something about the ‘script’ or dialogue of the characters were flat coupled with the fact that trolls for me were kind of an ‘okay’ and not really amazing thing to be talked about for a movie. The CGI of the trolls were kind of off for me. Although, I was impressed with how it was filmed in a “found footage” mockumentary way. This would make most of the viewers more interested, giving it more of an edge. Even if they did say it was a found footage movie, it was obvious that it was not real enough for there to be actual trolls in Norway because of the way the trolls looked for me. The action and interactions with the trolls were quite cool since this was a found footage movie its almost as if you are part of the action itself, the viewer becomes the camera man witnessing these trolls up close and fighting them.

The trolls in Norway plot is a heavily cultural thing. There are many Norwegian folktales about how there are many different species of trolls in the country as like the ones in the movie. I feel that maybe this was also why I did not really like the movie because I could not really connect with the culture (especially coming from a highly traditional catholic society). This movie went to be rated highly by Norwegian critics which in turn means that a huge part of how one may actually enjoy a movie is if it is something they can relate to and actually believe in as well.

This goes back to the questions I posed in the beginning, what does it mean to believe in something? The movie gives us a confusing answer, yes that trolls are real (knowing that it was seen ‘in real life’ by these students) yet they suddenly disappeared, gone forever with only a movie to account for evidence. Is that enough for others, the viewers of the movie specifically, to be able to believe in trolls as well? We may never get to know. How strong are your beliefs? In the end, we see the Norwegian Prime Minister actually say that these trolls were real which was quite funny and a big win towards the students and Hans to be able to spread their point across to others.

Overall if you are into the mockumentary or found footage type of genre this is a great movie because other than it being action packed it was funny at times in that dead-pan sort of way. But for me this may not be my kind of movie.

Sixth

Holy Motors by Leos Carax

If people would ask me what would be the weirdest/strangest movie I could recommend to them, this would be it. I feel that this movie really challenged me in a sense that to try to understand it is to not even try at all.

Holy Motors by Leos Carax focuses on a man named Mr. Oscar who goes around France portraying different and quite unique characters in front of crowds without them noticing it is a part of an act. The movie calls these jobs of Mr. Oscar as ‘appointments’ while he goes around in a limo driven by the only other main character in the movie, Celine, that is used to transport him to different places around France. Each ‘appointment’ that Mr. Oscar goes to escalated from quite normal for the movie to down right strange. This also goes for the movie that became increasingly weird yet engaged me enough to want to know what he would do next.

The way the movie introduced its premise was quite slow, we first meet the protagonist leaving his home and immediately is told about his first appointment and he starts putting on make up and a costume. It is never immediately explained on how the main premise of this being a sort of ‘show’ until a man is in Mr. Oscar’s limo. They talk about the ‘business’ and how it is now changing. Mr. Oscar talks about how he “misses seeing the cameras” and how he is doing this for the “beauty of the act” as well which may come to the conclusion that this may have been filmed more obviously back then and was seen by a bigger audience and was quite popular back then. From simply becoming a beggar on the streets of Paris, to murdering a banker, and to finally coming home to a family of chimpanzees as his last appointment the movie is nothing short of bizarre and unique.

To understand this movie, I believe is to try and understand the weird and uncomfortable. To create beautiful acts or scenes is to embrace the oddity of what it all means. To create something beautiful through weird and complicated means may sometimes become too fantasized by those who want to try and be different and want to seem more inclusive of other kinds of art. Just as Mr. Oscar was portraying Mr. Merde, the photographer simply started taking pictures of him against a backdrop of wanting to portray the ‘weird’. It seemed as if he was forcefully trying to connect both the normal and unique odd-ball types of art forms. From this, a question that came on to me was “To what extent would people go to create beautiful art and what does it mean for art to be beautiful?”

The world continues to change together with its cultures and how people react to art. Society back then used to love the acts that Mr. Oscar portrayed through his appointments. From intimate scenes between father and daughter and another one of his appointments where he talks about life as an old dying man, which shows raw and true vulnerability in film to the outright bizarre craziness of biting off people’s fingers and murder action. But now, we have somehow embraced a different kind of art, one that is all about who and the amount of profit that can be garnered from it.

Fifth

Good Bye, Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker

A story where in familial love trumps all. A story where in you realize you must do anything for you loved ones and protect them from the harsh realities of life no matter how mundane it may be to the viewer. This movie made me laugh and was enjoyable from start to end.

Unlike the past few movies that we watched this was not as heavy in plot as the others. It was not confusing, the characters were dynamic and their relationships were fun to watch as they interacted and grew together. At the beginning learning that this was a story about a Socialist East German mother who falls into a coma after seeing her son rallying against the Socialist Party and waking up after the fall of the Berlin Wall was quite funny. Random, quite quirky but as I watched the film, I could see it was more than just Alex trying to avoid his mother from learning the truth about the German Unification but did it in a place of love as the doctor said that if she knew about the present situation, her illness may worsen.

In a situation of life and death, I would have done what Alex had done. To just keep my mother at a mindset that makes her comfortable and happy. The ways in which he tried to protect her were both hilarious and really had no bounds. From creating his own news broadcasts to asking his long time idol astronaut (which may actually just be a look-a-like) to become the new leader of East Germany. Inter cut with this story of Alex and his mother, we must never forget that this was actually history. The harsh realities of police brutality and heavy censorship during these times for Germany before its unification and in the fall of the Berlin Wall, an integration of a more capitalistic and democratic society. We realize that change is difficult, it may not be for everyone but it may not always be a bad thing. The movie subtly shows these changes in history through scenes such as when Alex and his sister Ariane must exchange their old money to the new currency but the bank denied this request. From the removal of his mother’s favorite kind of pickles as this has now been changed with a new brand from another country as Germany has now allowed the import from other markets

All this change would have been difficult for the mother but in the movie, all it took was time. Alex’s girlfriend finally told her without Alex’s knowledge but she did not have a heart attack right away, she was even able to see Alex’s final news broadcast with a smile on her face realizing that this was done by Alex just to protect her from these realities never mentioning to her son that she knew. I would like to believe she died happy, able to have lived a full life doing what she believed in and surrounded by those that she loved.