Frances Ha

   With the fingers on one hand can I count the number of films that I've watched that have come out in the last year. Frances Ha is amongst them( Side note: sometimes I have a hard time getting around to watching newer films).  Noah Baumbach is a director whose films are either hit or miss for me; love Kicking & Screaming, The Squid & The Whale not so much. Frances Ha joins the love side of the list & becomes a personal favourite of films made in recent years.

   Frances... fantastic. New York filmed in black and white, where have I seen you before? Yes, the cinematography does feel like a nod to Manhattan. I didn't find it the slightest bit pretentious, on the contrary, it was delightful and beautifully filmed. The story, cleverly told in an intelligent manner and the dialogue fresh. Musically, the soundtrack was choice. I especially enjoyed the way in which David Bowie's 'Modern Love' was utilized. Frances... relatable. Situationally speaking, as someone in their mid to late 20s, I found it painted an accurate & humourous portrait of the experience of being that person who is continuously trying to put your life together. There were countless scenarios that felt very... familiar; themes of changing friendship cycles, artistic endeavours, the constant house hopping, etc. Frances... undatable. Greta Gerwig is adorable as Frances and in general, is an actress I have come to quite like upon first seeing her in Damsels in Distress. It was also nice to see Adam Driver appear outside of Girls. 10/10.

Seen In 2013 PS. Happy New Year!

Here's a list of all the films I watched this year.

 

 

 

Happy New Year!!

Double Feature Suggestion #2

Le Pont Du Nord + Rubin & Ed

(Films About Offbeat Duos going on an Adventure)

 

(Rubin screencap c/o http://mandrakore.tumblr.com)

50 Favourite Episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

I just finished watching Star Trek: DS9 in its entirety so I'll probably be making quite a few posts related to it and I watched to start with a list of my favourite episodes... so in a vaguely particular order:

1. What You Leave Behind ( Phenomenal series finale that ranks among the best)
2. Sacrifice of Angels (The penultimate, jam-packed with emotion & action)
3. In The Cards (Highlight of Nog & Jake's antics, fun episode)
4. Who Mourns For Morn? (I love Morn...)
5. Image in the Sand/Shadows & Symbols
6. The Search Pts. 1 & 2 (excellent introduction to the Dominion)
7. Children of Time (Very well-executed straight sci-fi story)
8. Trials & Tribble-ations
9. Treachery, Faith & The Great River (Never doubt the great material continuum...)
10. Rapture
11. Improbable Cause/The Die Is Cast
12. Shakaar
13. You Are Cordially Invited
14. Waltz
15. The Way of the Warrior
16. The Quickening
17. Til Death Do Us Part/Strange Bedfellows
18. The Magnificent Ferengi (This episode feels like a Marx Brothers routine...)
19. The Reckoning
20. The Circle/The Siege(First mention of the chief's love of field rations & great guest performance by Richard Beymer)
21. Behind The Lines/Favor The Bold
22. Tears of the Prophet
23. Change of Heart
24. Bar Association(I love how hard it is for the Ferengi to even utter the word "union")
25. Life Support
26. Facets (Curzon/Odo is a highlight) 
27. Call To Arms
28. For The Cause
29. Accession
30. Statistical Probabilities
31. Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
32. Homefront
33. Afterimage
34.  Broken Link
35. The Ascent (Excellent Odo/Quark & Nog/Jake episode)
36. Dogs of War
37. Return To Grace
38. Little Green Men(Time travel done right, Quark's plot to take over Earth...)
39. Equilibrium
40. The Wire
41. Tribunal (Cardassian justice...)
42. In The Pale Moonlight
43. His Way(Introducing Vic Fontaine...)
44. Civil Defense (Good old Cardassian technology & gotta love Gul Dukat as a hologram)
45. The Changing Face of Evil
46. It's Only A Paper Moon
47. Honor Among Thieves
48. Hippocratic Oath
49. Dr. Bashir I Presume? (Love the nod to Voyager/Ricard Picardo guest-spot)
50. A Time To Stand

(Honourable Mentions: Second Skin, The Visitor, Prophet Motive, In The Hands of the Prophets, The Begotten, Fascination, Blood Oath, The Ship, Resurrection, Apocalypse Rising, Heart of Stone, In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light, Paradise, The Jem'Hadar & The Abandoned)

Least Favourite Episodes as a side-note: Our Man Bashir, Move Along Home,  Crossfire, Rules of Engagement, The Muse, Distant Voices, Rivals, Time's Orphan, Babble, If Wishes Were Horses, The Nagus, Shattered Mirror, The Darkness & The Light.

Double Feature Suggestion #1

Opera + La Femme Publique

(Films About Divas Going Over The Edge)

                  

Anything Else(2003)...

For Christmas, I decided upon watching Anything Else for a second time for 2 simple reasons: a)to see if it was as hilarious as I remembered & b)to keep thematically in sync with the Woody Allen retrospective playing locally. Sure enough, it was as hilarious to me as it was the first time; rarely a pause to recuperate from laughter. I was mildly(but not really) surprised when checking over the reviews and opinions of others to discover a imdb rating of 6.3/10. It's understandable, Woody Allen films are a niche that one either loves or dislikes( and as a rule I don't take imdb ratings all that seriously). I feel it is both underrated and a highlight of his work over the last decade. Not to mention, one of my personal favourites.

   Granted Anything Else shares much in common with/is strikingly similar to countless of his other films, I think it still does well enough on its own to stand apart. The zaniness and sharp wit of the film are of a special brand. Very dry, razor sharp, over the top hyperbole. Heavy themes of paranoia, jealousy, self-deprecation, infidelities & the failed relationship: present and accounted for. All around, the casting is great from the leads to supporting cast such as Danny Devito & Stockard Channing. Jason Biggs, much like Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris, fits in nicely as a stand-in for a young Allen in the lead role. Woody Allen, himself, is superb as Biggs' loony older mentor(some of his funniest acting for sure) and the two play off of each other wonderfully. The bit where Dobel takes Falk to buy a gun is priceless. Also, I adore Christina Ricci and it was a delight to see her as a neurotic female lead in a Woody Allen film.


Anything Else gets a 10/10 from me. Clearly, it's not for everyone, as I've already noted, but one that I would recommend to fans of Woody Allen and is an all around a fun film.