r/moviecritic

🎬 Memories of Murder (2003)

What is that one dialogue or word from a movie that cracks you every single time even on just thinking?

Mine is Ben Stiller yelling policia in Ron Burgundy

I think it's a fantastic homage to Jaws. There are some moments that are fantastically creepy. The sound effects and overall sound of this film is fantastically frightening. When the horse gets eaten kinda of gives me chills. Plus, there are some sky shots that are fantastically frightening. This was another movie where it took you until the end to understand what they're dealing with. Of which I really enjoyed. Plus the Ape/Sitcom flashbacks are fantastic and another horror movie nestled inside this one.

Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in films noir with Alan Ladd during the 1940s, her peek-a-boo hairstyle, and films such as Sullivan's Travels (1941) and I Married a Witch (1942). By the late 1940s, Lake's career began to decline because of alcoholism. She made only one film in the 1950s, but had several guest appearances on television.

Loved Kevin Bacon in Sleepers. Loved it when they got their revenge on his character

What’s a movie that uses the music in a scene so perfectly, you constantly go back to it?

For me it’s the scene in The Village (2004) where Lucius grabs Ivy’s hand and they head to the cellar.

The music by James Newton Howard gives me chills. The slow mo, the hand grab, the dim lighting around the creature, etc.

One of the most beautiful scenes in a M. Night film. I go back to this often.

What’s your favorite?

People keep calling The Bride! “Joker coded” or a ripoff of Joker: Folie à Deux, and it’s driving me insane, because the movie is pulling from a completely different tradition. If anything, it’s way closer to Frankenstein movies and The Man Who Laughs (1928) than it is to anything Todd Phillips is doing.

The obvious thing: The Man Who Laughs (1928) is based on Victor Hugo’s novel(yeah, the same guy who wrote Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and that film is what directly inspired the Joker’s face in the first place. Conrad Veidt’s carved grin becomes the visual template that the comics basically took and turned into a completely different kind of monster.(see picture)

What The Bride! is doing with Frank feels way more in line with Hugo/Shelley/German expressionism than with Folie à Deux’s whole “jukebox musical of shared delusion” thing. Frank and Gwynplaine are both made into monsters by other people and then forced to live inside a body that exists for other people’s entertainment or control. Both have to cover or manage their faces/identities just to move through the world without being treated as a threat or a spectacle. (Down to the scarf/handkerchief thing, which feels like a deliberate echo.)

Christian Bale’s Frank has some Karloff Frankenstein “misunderstood outcast” energy, but the loneliness and the very physical, awkward sadness of him reminded me a lot of Veidt too. It feels very German Expressionist: the distorted body as a mirror of a distorted world.Meanwhile, Joker: Folie à Deux is a New Hollywood inspired comic book musical about shared psychosis, abusive fantasy, staged musical numbers inside Arthur’s head. Whatever you think of it, its whole project is about turning Joker and Harley into this toxic, jukebox musical nightmare.

The Bride! isn’t interested in making a “cool villain origin” or a “broken couple we stan.” It’s more of a tragic monster story about bodies that have been used up, mutilated, stitched together, and then expected to perform romance and revolution for other people. Frank is not giving Arthur Fleck with scars vibe at all. He is someone who knows he was built as a thing and is still desperate for an actual life.

So yeah, The Bride! isn’t trying to chase Joker at all. The film lives in that sad, literary monster space (Mary Shelley’s creature, Victor Hugo’s Gwynplaine, Karloff’s misunderstood brute, Veidt’s mutilated performer). Frank and the Bride feel like a pair of walking wounds who are finally, maybe, allowed to want something for themselves.

Liv Ullmann does an amazing job in Persona (1966) and Bibi Andersson does as well, they have great chemistry in their roles. They are big part of why this is my favorite film of Ingmar Bergman.

His trying to stay with her and make sure she survived and running from Cal (who only starting chasing and shooting at them because she jumped back on the boat with the diamond in her coat pocket) is what led to him being in the water in the first place. With Jack being so young and strong and healthy, he would've had a pretty good shot at making it out alive if he didn't have to watch out for Rose. Rose as good as killed Jack before either of them even made it to the door

Idris Elba is one of those actors who almost always shows up, even when the movie absolutely doesn’t.

Like, the guy is clearly talented as hell, charismatic, intense, can do action, drama, crime stuff, quieter character roles, all of it. When he gets strong material, he’s fantastic. His TV work especially really shows that.

But his filmography feels weirdly inconsistent. He’s got some genuinely great roles, then right next to them are movies that are just mid, badly written, or totally forgettable. And what makes it more frustrating is he’s often the best part of those weaker films. He’ll bring gravitas and commitment, and meanwhile the script or overall movie just doesn’t match his level.

That’s why I think people underrate how good he actually is because if you mostly judge him by some of his movie choices, it can feel uneven. Compared to his TV work, where he’s had some of his most memorable performances, his film career feels a lot more hit-or-miss. He’ll go from excellent roles to big blockbusters to random projects that leave almost no impact. Who are some other actors or actresses that always choose bad movies to work in

My rating: https://thefilmproject.org/movie/Juror%20%232%20(2024)#review-5c998f37-5525-4b22-baf1-e1ff80ef8818

I love the direction by Michael Mann, the set design and cinematography are fantastic. The performances are all great, particularly by William Petersen is great as Will Graham, Brian Cox as well as Hannibal and Tom Noonan as Francis Dolarhyde.

So good in so much!!