The diary of a cinephile

STALKER  . Director: Andrei Tarkovsky   Genre : Drama Sci-fi Stars:   Alisa Freyndlikh ,  Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy , Anatoliy Solonitsyn   Two men are guided, by a "stalker" into an area know as "The Zone" in search of a room that grants you wishes.  This film is mainly visually interesting but to me it lacks a sens of story. This film succeeds in visually drawing you in, but sadly to me the zone felt like one big garden the only obstacle being your own thoughts.  Takovsky is indefinably one of the greatest, that being said I did not connect to the story of the film, I found myself being emotionally infested in only the images being shown on the screen,and the metaphors they hold. But  not the characters.  the film consist of shots being shown for a long duration of time, transporting you into a dream, once we are transported into the zone, we don't really remember...

Blue Velvet  Director:   David Lynch Genre : Mystery thriller Stars:   Isabella Rossellini ,  Kyle MacLachlan ,  Dennis Hopper   "Absurdity is what I like most in life, and there's humor in struggling in ignorance. If you saw a man repeatedly running into a wall until he was a bloody pulp, after a while it would make you laugh because it becomes absurd. " -David Lynch A young man visits his childhood neighborhood to help take care of his ill father. But he soon finds himself being in love with a detectives daughter and mixed up in a twisted dark mystery.  This film doesn't follow normal logic but rather dream logic, the film provides us with distorted imagery of our suburban "white picked fence" reality.     In this film symbolism and dark disturbing secrets are hiding behind each corner. The film has a classic film nior  murder mystery element but it is paired with so much more. I found myself laugh...

Wild strawberries  Director:   Ingmar Bergman Genre :  Drama, Romance  Stars:   Victor Sjöström ,  Bibi Andersson ,  Ingrid Thulin “We make each other alive; it doesn't make a difference if it hurts.”  ― ingmar Bergman a desolated professor is forced to commemorate his past,  when going on a road  trip with his daughter in law.  while watching this film i was transported into dreamlike state,it almost felt as though time got warped. The long road trip and Edgar's dream scenes, being isolated in a space along with different people, that's when life gets interesting.  this film is filled with symbolism shown mostly through dream like scenes "flashbacks". what makes the film worth worthwhile to watch,  is the subject of the films theme, contemplating ones morality.  Would you be content with the way you lived your life ? Is the way you pre...

GUMMO Director:   Harmony Korine Stars:   Nick Sutton ,  Jacob Sewell ,  Lara Tosh genre : art house social realism  "I purposefully try to make films in that grey area, where things are morally ambiguous. It's like life: good people do horrible things, and bad people do good things, and there's beauty in horror and horror in beauty. " - Harmony Korine the film follows a group of people living in a small tornado struck town in Ohio. This film might not follow any real narrative but I think it imitates life the most realistic. The film is filled with shocking imagery from killing cats to just plain unsettling human behavior. Within these cinematic images truth about our society can be found, as a viewer I had to take my rose colored glasses off and really see the world for what it is (in some parts of the world or even fictional) rather then what I think is socially acceptable.  Director Harmony Korine is an artist at ow...

Stumbling into beauty.  Lady Bird 👄 This is Greta Gerwig 's directorial debut, in this film Gerwig illuminates a new type of coming of age film, the love story between a mother and her daughter.  The plot follows "Lady Bird" in her existential crises of longing for more, it all takes place in her senior year at a catholic  high school in Sacramento, California. She experiences her first love, the struggle of applying for collage as well as the importance of friendship and family.   the story is not so much about her going to collage or getting away from Sacramento but rather the little things that happen in between, we experience Lady Birds deep love for her home town and the people in it. what makes this film resonate with the viewer is how close to home it hits. In someways we have all been Lady Bird.  The opening scene starts with a fight between Lady Bird and her mother, this scene is messy and filed with the two consta...