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The Battle of Algiers (1966)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
1966 | Classics, Drama, War
7.4 (8 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"When I’m not making my own movies, I’m usually working on a trailer for someone else’s. Since I was twenty-two years old, I’ve been a professional trailer editor. I began editing trailers for big Hollywood films (I was one of the editors on the trailer campaigns for the Scream movies, The Matrix movies, and a zillion others), but I eventually left that world and turned all my attention to art-house films. In recent years, I’ve had the unbelievable fortune to have created the trailers for several modern masterpieces now enshrined in the Criterion Collection, including Heart of a Dog, The Great Beauty, Yi Yi, Cameraperson, and Like Someone in Love. Another highlight in my trailer career was editing the rerelease trailer for The Battle of Algiers. Not only was there so much incredible material to use, but Pontecorvo’s masterpiece had always been one of my all-time favorites. It’s a huge influence on how I think about filmmaking, from the handheld camera work to its daring and quick editing to its strong use of music (Morricone!) to how Pontecorvo just throws a viewer right into the deep end from the get-go. Also, like the best documentaries (see The Thin Blue Line up the page a bit), it puts the responsibility on the audience to draw its own conclusions. The Criterion disc also includes some amazing extras, including a not bad rerelease trailer. ;)"

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Lost Girls and Love Hotels (2020)
Lost Girls and Love Hotels (2020)
2020 | Drama, Thriller
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Rather pointless (0 more)
Lost its way
Not heard of this before it popped up on Sky cinema based on a successful novel of the same title. A different direction for Alexandra Daddario who seems to have churned out lots of low budget Rom Coms most recently.
This is an odd bleak character study which feels a bit like Lost in Translation crossed with 9 1/2 weeks but falling way short of either of them. Her character is a bit of drifter in Tokyo, always drunk and meeting random men for meaningless sex in the love hotels. Until she meets by chance a Yakuza gangster who she begins an affair with.
There was a lot more potential in this, it tries to be quite art house but most of the film is filled with shots of her drunk in a bar with friends, staggering around Tokyo at night or with random men. The Yakuza angle is barely explored with Kazu and they spend very little time together as well. Apparently a good 45mins has been cut and the film has been on the shelf a while after being filmed late 2017.
The end result is a brief character study of someone at rock bottom of life. Unfortunately it's quite dull for the most part, not erotic either. It's a shame as it could have been a lot better with a few plot angles explored more.
  
The Silent Patient
The Silent Patient
Alex Michaelides | 2019 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
10
8.3 (39 Ratings)
Book Rating
118 of 235
Book
The Silent Patient
By Alex Michaelides
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....


This was so so good!! It kept you completely sucked and and that ending was a WTF moment for me I did not see that coming at all! Brilliant!