Stuff Seen, Jan 2020

Hardware (Richard Stanley, 1990) [6]
The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1978) [7]
Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1982) [6]
High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973) [8]
The Secret of Roan Inish (John Sayles, 1994) [7+]
Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996) [8.5]
The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976) [8]
Inferno (Dario Argento, 1980) [5] [It’s clear how Argento lost his touch exactly (and already) around this point; Inferno is a film of pure visuals, which try to replicate the stylish Suspiria, but, unlike in that one, here there’s no atmosphere or suspense, and the almost non-existent plot declines towards plain boredom very quickly]
Tenebre (Dario Argento, 1982) [6] [Very well directed and edited gore sequences, but everything else is just as boring and tedious as Inferno]
Pale Rider (Clint Eastwood, 1985) [7.5]
Mery per sempre (Marco Risi, 1989) [7]
Ragazzi fuori (Marco Risi, 1990) [8] [After the successful ‘Mery per sempre’, Risi shot ‘Ragazzi fuori’ as its sequel, but this time he used a completely different style – he cleaned it up from any type of melodrama or mainstream concession, eliminated all the professional actors and only kept the non-professional ones, and pushed realism and rawness to a level that Italian cinema had rarely previously seen. An obvious influence on Garrone’s ‘Gomorra’, ‘Ragazzi fuori’ is a free-form, gritty, deeply urban fresco of 1980s-1990s Southern Italy’s streets. The best movie by one of the most underrated Italian directors, it should get at least the same respect and recognition that the best works by Bellocchio, Pasolini, and maybe even Rossellini get, but it still never happens]
Il branco (Marco Risi, 1994) [7.5] [Hated by both critics and audiences when it was released, this dark, gritty film is another underrated good work by one of Italian cinema’s most underrated directors; Risi managed to truly capture and communicate the depressing, isolated vibe of a central Italian small town in the 1990s, lost in the middle of its foggy mountains, among deranged youth, catholicism and emptiness; he managed to mix together dark, grim tones and stylish editorial choices, very often risking to ruin the balance, and closed the movie with a really memorable sequence. ‘Il branco’ delivers a punch to the stomach and a glimpse of hell like few directors in cinema, and virtually none in Italian cinema, have managed to do. The audience gets pushed into the deep water right from the start (forced to face and adapt to the main characters’ everyday life and therefore point of view), avoids pedagogism and moralism, and never gets to take a breath of oxygen until the end]
Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009) [6.5] [After reading so much praise still now, a decade after its release, I decided to go back and watch it again, but my impression remains the same – more than deep-diving into exploring solitude or into philosophical questions, like Tarkovsky and Kubrick to whom Jones had been compared by many, the script (which is sustained by a thin, not super solid background premise), seems more interested in triggering easy emotions with the wife/daughter story, uses music too heavily, and moves to an excessively sleepy pace; besides the good visuals and an amusing ending, the one great idea in it is the anti-‘2001’ concept of the benign AI, programmed to prioritize the safety of the protagonist(s)]
A Most Violent Year (J.C. Chandor, 2014) [7]
L’ultimo capodanno (Marco Risi, 1998) [6]
Romanzo criminale (Michele Placido, 2005) [7-]
Dogman (Matteo Garrone, 2018) [7]

Stuff Seen, Oct+Nov+Dec 2019

Stranger Things, s1 eps 1-8 (Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer, 2016) [6.5] [I gave this a second try after all the hype, and managed to complete the season, but I didn’t find anything memorable or particularly interesting in it]
Rogue Trader (James Dearden, 1999) [7]
Lord of War (Andrew Niccol, 2005) [7-] [I gave it a second try, and re-evaluated positively the script and the dialogues, which offer constant amused twists and jabs to the regular moral codes you normally see in Hollywood productions; the weak point of the movie is more the visual, editing and overall directorial aspect]
The Founder (John Lee Hancock, 2016) [5]
Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007) [7]
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, 2009) [7]
The Ides of March (George Clooney, 2011) [7]
You, s1 eps 1-10 (2018) [6]
Silicon Valley, s3 ep1-10 (Mike Judge, 2016) [7.5]
Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007) [8] [definitely the highest point in Fincher’s career]
Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1997) [8-]
Extreme Prejudice (Walter Hill, 1987) [7-]
Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002) [6.5] [I decided to watch it a second time, after many years from the first one, and whoa, my memories of it were so much better. With such a great starting idea by Dick, the movie still manages to be just average, ruined by many irritating blockbuster moments (the scream moment maybe takes the crown as the worst one); fortunately, there’s also at least one great sequence (the one with the small robot drones searching the building), but good visual technique cannot save such an infantile adaptation.]
Wall Street (Oliver Stone, 1987) [8.5]
RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987) [8]
Talk Radio (Oliver Stone, 1988) [7]
Evil Dead II (Sam Raimi, 1987) [7.5]
Razorback (Russell Mulcahy, 1984) [7]
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988) [8]
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013) [6.5]
Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986) [6.5] [I’m really lost here, why is this movie considered a masterpiece, often by the same people who rate Allen’s post-2000 works like Scoop or Blue Jasmine much lower, when there isn’t really a difference in scriptwriting quality? ‘Hannah…’ is one of the clearest cases of consistent overrating by critics I’ve ever encountered]
The Hit (Stephen Frears, 1984) [7]
Narcos, s1 ep1 (José Padilha, 2017) [6] [I don’t see what all the fuss is about, I won’t go on with this one]
Colors (Dennis Hopper, 1988) [7]
State of Grace (Phil Joanou, 1990) [7]
Dark Angel (Craig R. Baxley, 1990) [5]
Eskimo Limon (Boaz Davidson, 1978) [7]
The Last American Virgin (Boaz Davidson, 1982) [7-]
Real Genius (Martha Coolidge, 1985) [7]
‘Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier, 1986) [8]
At Close Range (James Foley, 1986) [7.5]
American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000) [7]
Roger Dodger (Dylan Kidd, 2002) [8]
The Big Easy (Jim McBride, 1986) [7] [unfortunately, the last third becomes quite stereotypical and loses the spark; but the first two thirds display a colorful direction, rapid-fire rhythm, disorienting moral codes, and well-designed, original characters]
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019) [7] [this time a bit unfocused, but still cool, unique and stylish]
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019) [7+]
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017) [8]
Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987) [9]
Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) [8]
Caché (Michael Haneke, 2005) [8]
The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) [7.5] [undoubtedly one of the best post-2000 Scorsese’s works, and always enjoyable to re-watch, but, in this particular case, I reserve my 8 for the original Mou gaan dou (Andrew Lau, Alan Mak, 2002), which I still find an even more solid movie overall]
Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016) [8]

Stuff Seen, Jul+Aug+Sep 2019

Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997) [8.5]
L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo (Dario Argento, 1970) [7]
Profondo rosso (Dario Argento, 1975) [8]
Suspiria (Dario Argento, 1977) [7.5]
V for Vendetta (James McTeigue, 2005) [5] [I tried to watch it for the second time after more than a decade; it’s just as mediocre as I remembered. While the first half could be a 6, from the prison sequence until the end it’s just simple-minded, silly, blockbustery and plain bad on all levels – in its script, its use of music, and its directorial choices]
Climax (Gaspar Noé, 2018) [7+]
Sicario: Day of the Soldado (Stefano Sollima, 2018) [7.5]
Call Me by Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, 2017) [6] [“what you two had was very special” – yes, since there was nothing special in the story because nothing special managed to be conveyed through words and images, it needed a character to explicitly say it at the end – this is just bad scriptwriting. Overall, this is really a film about enjoying an Italian summer in the 1980s. Italy is the main character in the movie, and it’s the character the director clearly loves, is attached to, and wants to depict and show to the world – an operation that succeeded, likely thanks to his personal memories from childhood/adolescence. Everything else is just secondary stuff that moves around on the canvas]
The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro, 2017) [5] [the unmistakable visual touch of del Toro, even if here too polished, can’t save this monodimensional, boring, simplistic cartoon tailored ad hoc for the Academy; let’s hope its success will enable GdT to work on more interesting projects]
The House That Jack Built (Lars von Trier, 2018) [7+]
The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski, 2010) [7.5]
The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016) [5] [even if the film has a great photography and some cool audiovisual choices, Refn wants to constantly shove in our face how good the shot is, which is something a film school student would do, and forces us to painfully watch each sequence for twice the amount of time it would have needed; scriptwriting-wise, there was enough material for a decent short film, and instead it got bloated to an almost 2-hour story with a totally unjustified super slow pace. The idea is not original, the characters are mannequins, the symbolism is not sharp, and the development does not offer any particular insight in the world it depicts – thanks to a good audiovisual translation, we still manage to see and feel a world of pure nothingness, but what’s interesting about it? Well, nothing]
Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986) [8.5]
The Nice Guys (Shane Black, 2016) [6.5] [Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was a much better script and movie in general; with this one, Shane Black tried to do something in a similar style but more lighthearted and cartoonish, overall it’s ok and with a well-paced rhythm, but the plot devices are over the top, and the comedy in the dialogues is quite basic]
The Keep (Michael Mann, 1983) [6] [a minor work by a masterful director, and very hard to find; it’s also the only time Mann has touched fantasy-horror themes. Unfortunately, there’s not enough material (especially in the painfully tedious second half), depth or dinamicity in the story (that Mann himself adapted from a novel by F. Paul Wilson), but he doesn’t fail to show his visual talent, and fits well with the photography by Alex Thomson, who did a great job on Excalibur two years earlier and here showed again his magic, dreamy touch with lights. The dreamy, magical tones also weave together well with the background music by Tangerine Dream. Overall, on paper, a story about nazis and demons, and with so many talented names involved, could/should have been great, but, for various reasons, it ended up being nothing more than just watchable]
To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 1985) [9] [the raw intensity, the adrenalinic rhtythm and editing, and the philosophical bleakness of this dark masterpiece of the police/crime genre is unmatched; for sure, the magnum opus of the incredible Friedkin, who took the essence of his own other classics The French Connection (1971) and Cruising (1980), mixed them and pushed them to the extreme]
Manhunter (Michael Mann, 1986) [Director’s Cut edition, 2000] [8+]
Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004) [7]
The Defiant Ones (Allen Hughes, 2017) [7.5]
Mad Max 2 (George Miller, 1981) [7.5] [still an aesthetically influential post-punk classic, but worse than how I remembered it; very often an almost disney-ian movie, and overall dragged down especially by its bad, omnipresent music score]
John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (Chad Stahelski, 2019) [5] [even worse than the second one – this time sets and photography became even more stylish, but the rhythm and flow of the first one are lost, no tension gets built up, the fights’ choreographies are nothing spectacular, and, well, all of that was supposed to be the good stuff… anything else that happens between the various action scenes (plot, dialogues) is just ridiculous; the fact that 4 people were involved to write such a script is absurd]

Stuff Seen, Apr+May+Jun 2019

Jusqu’à la garde (Xavier Legrand, 2017) [7]
Ovsyanki / Silent Souls (Aleksey Fedorchenko, 2010) [5]
Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018) [7] [I keep thinking Soderbergh’s skills as a director are some of the most underrated in the industry; he “graduated” with Traffic (2000), and since then he’s been showing a lot of visual narrative talent in almost all his works, always with stripped down humbleness, and no grandeur or hybris… it’s been almost 20 years in a row by now]
Stoker (Chan-wook Park, 2013) [6.5]
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2017) [8]
The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2018) [7.5]
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos, 2015) [7]
Zimna wojna (Pawel Pawlikowski, 2018) [7.5]
Poong-san-gae (Jai-hong Juhn, 2011) [6]
Columbus (Kogonada, 2017) [6.5]
Den skyldige (Gustav Möller, 2018) [7]
Yume to kyôki no ôkoku / The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (Mami Sunada, 2013) [7.5]
Widows (Steve McQueen, 2018) [7+]
Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell, 2018) [7+] [quite underrated – a trippy, surrealist mix of genres; it reminded me a bit of Altman, a bit of Lynch, and a bit of Pynchon]
Los amantes del Círculo Polar (Julio Medem, 1998) [6] [from what I’ve read, this is considered Medem’s best film, but Caótica Ana was not only more stylish, but also more concise and focused]
Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford, 2016) [7+]
Todos lo saben (Asghar Farhadi, 2018) [5] [I couldn’t even finish it, which happens rarely; so a 5 is already generous]
Laissez bronzer les cadavres (Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani, 2017) [6.5]
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (Alex Gibney, 2019) [7.5]
Da hong deng long gao gao gua / Raise the Red Lantern (Yimou Zhang, 1991) [8]
Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter, 1986) [7.5]
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983) [8.5]
Risky Business (Paul Brickman, 1983) [7]
Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984) [7]
Romancing the Stone (Robert Zemeckis, 1984) [7.5]
Salvador (Oliver Stone, 1986) [8]
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 1986) [7]
Black Mirror s4 ep4 (Timothy Van Patten, 2017) [6] [I jumped straight into this ep, as all the ratings indicates it’s supposedly the best of the season – well, if this is the season’s best, I’m definitely in no rush to watch the rest]
Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter, 1987) [7.5]
In the Mouth of Madness (John Carpenter, 1994) [8]

Stuff Seen, Jan+Feb+Mar 2019

Caótica Ana (Julio Medem, 2007) [7]
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared (Joseph Pelling, Becky Sloan, 2011) [8]
The Putin Interviews (Oliver Stone, 2017) [5] [Stone always remains on the surface of the topics, never going in depth, hearing a string of basics answers and never challenging their content… not a documentary, not a good interview, not a good commentary: in short, useless]
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (David Slade, 2018) [6.5]
Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018) [6.5] [the last 30 minutes are a 7, everything that comes before is a 5; it looks like Garland is talented visually, but in desperate need of some good screenwriters, because for more than one hour this film is totally mediocre, and only when the pure visuals take the front seat it starts to shine (but it’s too late)]
Rocco (Thierry Demaizière, Alban Teurlai, 2016) [7]
Ozark, s1 ep1 (Jason Bateman, 2017) [6]
The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino, 2015) [7] [yes, I agree this is not among his best; but, I can’t give less than 7 to the film with the best character development I’ve seen in a long time – I’m talking about how the relationship between Marquis Warren and Chris Mannix develops throughout the story, in a progression that flows in a perfectly natural way, and ends with the birth of a friendship right before the moment of common death, depicted with a mix of lighthearted black comedy and poetry, and a sense of drama just entering the frame, in a balanced, delicate way, without shouting. Just very good screenwriting that reminds us of the good old days when this quality level was way more common…]
A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005) [8]
Love (Gaspar Noé, 2015) [6.5]
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, 2018) [7-] [a minor work in their canon, but still good]
Spy Game (Tony Scott, 2001) [7]
Aquarius, s1 ep1 (Jonas Pate, 2015) [6]
Aquarius, s1 ep2 (Jonas Pate, 2015) [6.5]
Incorporated, s1 ep1 (David Pastor, Àlex Pastor, 2016) [7]
Chorok mulkogi / Green Fish (Chang-dong Lee, 1997) [7]
Bakha satang / Peppermint Candy (Chang-dong Lee, 1999) [7]
Tonî Takitani (Jun Ichikawa, 2004) [8]
Beoning / Burning (Chang-dong Lee, 2018) [8]
Conspiracy Theory (Richard Donner, 1997) [6-]
Alien: Covenant (Ridley Scott, 2017) [6.5]
Gegen die Wand (Fatih Akin, 2004) [7]
Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck, 2006) [5] [not sure what’s the point of this movie; it just rambles on, without substance or depth, unable to make the story interesting]
Rounders (John Dahl, 1998) [8]
Tucker and Dale vs Evil (Eli Craig, 2010) [7+] [a rare example of a movie which is very silly and very ingenious at the same time, a good fun watch]
The Return of the Living Dead (Dan O’Bannon, 1985) [7]
Return of the Living Dead: Part II (Ken Wiederhorn, 1988) [4]
Return of the Living Dead III (Brian Yuzna, 1993) [6-]

Stuff Seen, Jul+Aug+Sep 2018

Mei ren yu / The Mermaid (Stephen Chow, 2016) [6.5]
Ah-ga-ssi / The Handmaiden (Chan-wook Park, 2016) [5] [the high ratings for this absolutely average movie are incomprehensible]
Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014) [7]
Merchants of Doubt (Robert Kenner, 2014) [7]
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Alex Gibney, 2005) [7.5]
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014) [8]
Dirty Money, s1 ep6, “The Confidence Man” (Fisher Stevens, 2018) [7]
Billions, s1 ep1 (Neil Burger, 2016) [6.5]
Zero Days (Alex Gibney, 2016) [7.5]
American Gods, s1 ep1 (David Slade, 2017) [6]
The Science of Interstellar (Gail Willumsen, 2015) [6.5]
Sedmikrásky (Vera Chytilová, 1966) [7]
Valerie a týden divu (Jaromil Jires, 1970) [8]
Le départ (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1967) [6.5]
Performance (Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg, 1970) [6.5]
Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973) [7]
La double vie de Véronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1991) [8.5]
Trois couleurs: Bleu (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993) [8]
Trois couleurs: Blanc (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1994) [8]
Trois couleurs: Rouge (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1994) [8.5]
Les fantômes du chapelier (Claude Chabrol, 1982) [6.5]
Merci pour le chocolat (Claude Chabrol, 2000) [6.5]
Black Widow (Bob Rafelson, 1987) [7]
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, 2014) [6.5]
The Man Who Discovered Capitalism (Detlef Siebert, 2016) [6.5]
Mindhunter, s1 ep1 (David Fincher, 2017) [6.5]
Mindhunter, s1 ep2 (David Fincher, 2017) [6.5]
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2014) [6]
Hell on Wheels, s1 ep1 (David Von Ancken, 2011) [7]
(М)ученик / The Student (Kirill Serebrennikov, 2016) [6]
Nelyubov / Loveless (Andrei Zvyagintsev, 2017) [6]

Stuff Seen, Apr+May+Jun 2018

Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980) [8.5]
The Matrix (Wachowski & Wachowski, 1999) [7.5]
Mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017) [7]
Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953) [7.5]
The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo, 2003) [7.5]
While We’re Young (Noah Baumbach, 2014) [7]
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie, 2016) [7+]
Wind River (Taylor Sheridan, 2017) [7]
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards, 1961) [7]
Silicon Valley, s2 ep. 1-10 (Mike Judge & Alec Berg, 2015) [7]

Stuff Seen, Jan+Feb+Mar 2018

Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) [9+]
Heat (Michael Mann, 1995) [9+]
L.A. Takedown (Michael Mann, 1989) [TV] [7.5]
Casino (Martin Scorsese, 1995) [8+]
Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017) [7]
The Insider (Michael Mann, 1999) [8.5]
Black Rain (Ridley Scott, 1989) [6.5]
Ransom (Ron Howard, 1996) [7.5]
Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997) [7.5]
Ronin (John Frankenheimer, 1998) [7.5]
Following (Christopher Nolan, 1998) [8]
The Enforcer (Bretaigne Windust, Raoul Walsh, 1951) [7]
Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee, 2005) [8]
Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000) [8]
To Catch a Thief (Alfred Hitchcock, 1955) [6.5]
The Lineup (Don Siegel, 1958) [7.5]
Payback (Brian Helgeland, 1999) [6]
Pociag / Night Train (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1959) [6]
Katok i skripka / The Steamroller and the Violin (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1961) [7]
Something Wild (Jonathan Demme, 1986) [7.5]
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) [9.5]
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974) [8+]
Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965) [7]
Charley Varrick (Don Siegel, 1973) [7.5]
Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) [9.5]
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) [9.5]
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan, 2014) [7]
Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017) [7]
The Martian (Ridley Scott, 2015) [7-]
Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, 2016) [6]
Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau, 2010) [6]
Iron Man Three (Shane Black, 2013) [6]
L’eau froide (Olivier Assayas, 1994) [8]
Fin août, début septembre (Olivier Assayas, 1998) [7]
Die xue jie tou / Bullet in the Head (John Woo, 1990) [9] [Yes, this movie clearly wouldn’t even have existed without Cimino’s The Deer Hunter. But Woo managed to basically take that classic and change it on such a personal level, infusing it with his own complete philosophy and his own complete set of both East Asian and Western filmmaking influences, that Bullet in the Head really manages to stand on its own as a masterpiece]
Ying hung boon sik / A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986) [7.5]
Dip huet seung hung / The Killer (John Woo, 1989) [9]
Fong juk / Exiled (Johnnie To, 2006) [7.5-]
Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996) [7.5]
Demonlover (Olivier Assayas, 2002) [7.5] [What a pity – it could have been an 8, if it wasn’t for that sudden fall into incoherent plot devices (which starts with the murder and then escalates at about 2/3), with the clear intention of imitating (without any of his brilliance) Lynch’s Lost Highway, then closed by a not really convinced moral provocation halfway between Videodrome and 8mm, just used as a tool for trying to give the final a meaning]
Clean (Olivier Assayas, 2004) [7]
Boarding Gate (Olivier Assayas, 2007) [6.5]
L’heure d’été (Olivier Assayas, 2008) [7.5]
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, 2014) [7]
Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas, 2016) [7-]

Oct+Nov+Dec 2017 Log

VIDEO:
Gaichû / Harmful Insect (Akihiko Shiota, 2001) [7]
Nabbeun namja / Bad Guy (Kim Ki-duk, 2001) [6.5]
Becoming Warren Buffett (Peter W. Kunhardt, 2017) [6]
Office Space (Mike Judge, 1999) [7]
Who Killed the Electric Car? (Chris Paine, 2006) [7]
Revenge of the Electric Car (Chris Paine, 2011) [7]
Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017) [6.5]
Who Am I – Kein System ist sicher (Baran bo Odar, 2014) [5]
Racing Extinction (Louie Psihoyos, 2015) [6]
The Intern (Nancy Meyers, 2015) [6.5]
Joy (David O. Russell, 2015) [7.5] [most underrated Hollywood movie of 2015]
Hua li shang ban zu / Office (Johnnie To, 2015) [6]
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick, 1992) [8]
Requiem for the American Dream (Peter D. Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, Jared P. Scott, 2015) [6]
The War Room (Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker, 1993) [5]
Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? (Michel Gondry, 2013) [8]
Nomads (John McTiernan, 1986) [6.5]
Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988) [7]
Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995) [6.5]
Hype! (Doug Pray, 1996) [8]
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky, 2004) [8]
Fail-Safe (Sidney Lumet, 1964) [8]
The Offence (Sidney Lumet, 1973) [6.5]
Running on Empty (Sidney Lumet, 1988) [7]
La société du spectacle (Guy Debord, 1973) [7]
The Cars That Ate Paris (Peter Weir, 1974) [6.5]
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, 2014) [6]

BOOKS:
The Little Book of Talent: 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills (Daniel Coyle, 2012) [LINK]
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (Eric Ries, 2011) [LINK]
Status quo: Perché in Italia è così difficile cambiare le cose (e come cominciare a farlo) (Roberto Perotti, 2016) [LINK]
On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, and What Can Be Done (Cass R. Sunstein, 2nd ed. 2014) [LINK]
Misinformation : Guida alla società dell’informazione e della credulità (Walter Quattrociocchi, Antonella Vicini, 2016) [LINK]
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (David Hume, 1748) [LINK]
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolstoy, 1886) [LINK]
Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West (Cormac McCarthy, 1985) [LINK]
Al tempo di papà (Jirō Taniguchi, 1994) [LINK]

Stuff Seen, Sep 2017

Twin Peaks, s3 ep17 (David Lynch, 2017) [7.5]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep18 (David Lynch, 2017) [7.5] [TP3 had its ups and downs, and it probably should have been a 12 eps. season, but it’s been overall a satisfying experience, with an otherwise just ok quality bumped up by 4-5 excellent episodes and a good “one-two combo” finale; let’s hope to see Lynch work again soon, and, even more importantly, to see other series with a similar or larger degree of artistic boldness]
Drachenmädchen (Inigo Westmeier, 2012) [7]
Real Value (Jesse Borkowski, 2013) [5]
Brother (Takeshi Kitano, 2000) [7+]
Dolls (Takeshi Kitano, 2002) [6.5]
Zatôichi (Takeshi Kitano, 2003) [6.5]
Takeshis’ (Takeshi Kitano, 2005) [8]
The Wrong Guy (David Steinberg, 1997) [7]

Stuff Seen, Aug 2017

Kôrei / Seance (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2000) [TV] [7]
Kairo / Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001) [8]
Dopperugengâ / Doppelgänger (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2003) [7]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep13 (David Lynch, 2017) [7]
Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick, 2015) [7] [overall, a better result than To the Wonder: the back story is less linear and with more subtleties, the settings and chosen locations are more varied and visually stimulating, and the editing is more interesting and similar to The Tree of Life; as uncompromising as always, and, this time, underrated]
Minnâ-yatteruka! / Getting Any? (Takeshi Kitano, 1994) [6.5]
Kizzu ritân / Kids Return (Takeshi Kitano, 1996) [7]
Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu / Gozu (Takashi Miike, 2003) [6.5]
The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom, eps. 1-3 (Adam Curtis, 2007) [TV] [6.5+] [this could very well be one of the best works by Curtis as a filmmaker, but still, the tendency to simplify complex issues on one hand and to flirt with conspiracy theories on the other is quite irksome; I also can’t get past the argument “since measuring is imperfect, not measuring at all is better”, and the fact that Curtis himself admits revolts and terrorism were a result of some of the philosophies he advocates, but then he still goes on defending them – it sounds quite incoherent]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep14 (David Lynch, 2017) [7.5]
HyperNormalisation (Adam Curtis, 2016) [6] [a mixed bag by Curtis; his statements about Assad creating suicide terrorism are just wrong (which is particularly unfortunate, since they’re the glue keeping all the film’s thesis together), his whole coverage of the Middle Eastern conflicts contains gigantic omissions, and his complete omission of anything involving the Dems (just in time for the 2016 elections) is painfully biased; other than that, he knows how to narrate and provides lots of insights, but it looks like he can’t avoid to manipulate stuff enough to make an otherwise good final product fatally flawed]
It Felt Like a Kiss (Adam Curtis, 2009) [6]
Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015) [7] [the low ratings this film received prove people don’t seem to care about/recognize a beautifully shot and edited movie anymore, which is absurd since it’s become a rare event in contemporary digital cinema, especially within the mainstream action genre (with Mann, for some mysterious reason, being one of the few who care/know how to do it). 10 years after Miami Vice, and the reaction is still the same, if not worse. This time, even a technically well written script where computing and hacking managed to get well translated into audiovisual narration and to be, for once, realistically depicted, didn’t get any appreciation. Too bad there are some hardly believable plot devices and the film loses a lot of its power during the last 30 minutes, going into genre cliché territory, but everything before that is just great cinema, proving Mann is still innovating and absolutely fresh. The film also launches a new type of action hero, with physical/combat skills just as central as cognitive/nerdy skills for his success (no need for the scientist/nerd supporting character trope anymore). And it’s even an overall better movie (more visually complex, interesting, with better rhythm and sound design) than Public Enemies]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep15 (David Lynch, 2017) [7+]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep16 (David Lynch, 2017) [8]

Stuff Seen, Jul 2017

World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt, 2015) [short] [7]
Black Mirror, s1 ep1 “The National Anthem” (Otto Bathurst, 2011) [6.5+]
Black Mirror, s1 ep2 “Fifteen Million Merits” (Euros Lyn, 2011) [7.5]
Black Mirror, s1 ep3 “The Entire History of You” (Brian Welsh, 2011) [7]
Black Mirror, s2 ep1 “Be Right Back” (Owen Harris, 2013) [6.5+]
Black Mirror, s2 ep2 “White Bear” (Carl Tibbetts, 2013) [6.5]
Black Mirror, s2 ep3 “The Waldo Moment” (Bryn Higgins, 2013) [7.5] [a truly solid script: coherent, well developed and effectively satirical – the best episode in this series so far; it also looks like it’s the least liked by fans judging by IMDb ratings, I really can’t understand it]
Black Mirror, “White Christmas” (Carl Tibbetts, 2014) [7.5] [another great one, it works on all levels (script, visuals, atmosphere) and has strong stylistic reminiscences from the best episodes of The Twilight Zone; technically a TV special, but it deserves a spot among the best low budget sci-fi movies of the 2010s]
Black Mirror, s3 ep1 “Nosedive” (Joe Wright, 2016) [6.5+] [it starts extremely well; the main point here is not about social media, which are just a tool, but about a society entirely built on reputation capital. Which results in a pastel-colored world where all negative emotions are repressed. The figure of the social reputation consultant is a particularly brilliant touch. Too bad the script suddenly drops in quality once the truck sequence ends, and the entire final part is mediocre at best – it feels like the authors didn’t have any idea how to end the story, and went with improvising, ultimately ruining a great premise]
The Expanse, s1 ep1 (Terry McDonough, 2015) [6]
Black Mirror, s3 ep2 “Playtest” (Dan Trachtenberg, 2016) [6]
Black Mirror, s3 ep3 “Shut Up and Dance” (James Watkins, 2016) [6.5]
Black Mirror, s3 ep4 “San Junipero” (Owen Harris, 2016) [7]
Black Mirror, s3 ep5 “Men Against Fire” (Jakob Verbruggen, 2016) [7] [well written and directed, but entirely too similar to The Outer Limits s4 ep3, “Hearts and Minds”]
Black Mirror, s3 ep6 “Hated in the Nation” (James Hawes, 2016) [6.5] [all in all, this 3rd season was always qualitatively at least decent, but the slow, progressive decline towards the mainstream is obvious]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep9 (David Lynch, 2017) [7+]
Hardcore Henry (Ilya Naishuller, 2015) [6.5]
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1997) [8.5]
Ano natsu, ichiban shizukana umi / A Scene at the Sea (Takeshi Kitano, 1991) [7.5]
Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano, 1997) [8.5]
Kikujirô no natsu / Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano, 1999) [7+]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep10 (David Lynch, 2017) [7]
Am zin / Running Out of Time (Johnnie To, 1999) [7.5]
John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski, 2017) [5] [from the Gianna’s death sequence on, it’s an entertaining 6/10 (well-shot, good cinematography and editing, some nice touches relatively to sets and locations, but still a cartoonish plotline with horrible dialogues) – too bad everything prior to that is a 4/10, and it constitutes roughly half of the movie. Overall, worse than the first film]
The Man in the High Castle, s1 ep1 (David Semel, 2015) [7]
Homeland, s1 ep1 (Michael Cuesta, 2011) [7]
Swimming with Sharks (George Huang, 1994) [7]
In the Company of Men (Neil LaBute, 1997) [8+]
Bound (Wachowski & Wachowski, 1996) [7.5]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep11 (David Lynch, 2017) [7]
Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson, 1997) [7.5]
Twin Peaks, s3 ep12 (David Lynch, 2017) [6-] [worst episode so far – a filler with lots of bad dialogues]

Stuff Seen, Apr+May+Jun 2017

Ercole Al Centro Della Terra (Mario Bava, Franco Prosperi, 1961) [7]
Conquest (Lucio Fulci, 1983) [6]
Basic (John McTiernan, 2003) [7]
Carne (Gaspar Noé, 1991) [short] [7]
Punch Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002) [7]
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007) [9]
The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012) [7]
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014) [6] [whoa, what a letdown]
Bleeder (Nicolas Winding Refn, 1999) [7]
Filmage: The Story of Descendents/All (Deedle Lacour, Matt Riggle, 2013) [7]
Enemy (Denis Villeneuve, 2013) [7]
120 Seconds to Get Elected (Denis Villeneuve, 2006) [short] [6.5]
Maelström (Denis Villeneuve, 2000) [7]
Polytechnique (Denis Villeneuve, 2009) [7]
Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010) [6.5]
The Guardian (William Friedkin, 1990) [6]
3-4 x jûgatsu / Boiling Point (Takeshi Kitano, 1990) [8]
Twin Peaks, s3ep1 (David Lynch, 2017) [8]
Twin Peaks, s3ep2 (David Lynch, 2017) [8]
Twin Peaks, s3ep3 (David Lynch, 2017) [7]
Twin Peaks, s3ep4 (David Lynch, 2017) [7] [Twin Peaks s3 = Eraserhead+Blue Velvet+Colorado Café]
Twin Peaks, s3ep5 (David Lynch, 2017) [7]
Milius (Joey Figueroa & Zak Knutson, 2013) [7]
The Hunt for Red October (John McTiernan, 1990) [6.5]
The Firm (Sydney Pollack, 1993) [6.5]
Get Me Roger Stone (Dylan Bank, Daniel DiMauro, Morgan Pehme, 2017) [7]
Twin Peaks, s3ep6 (David Lynch, 2017) [6.5] [definitely the worst episode until now; I’m puzzled by how much this new season oscillates between highs and lows]
Twin Peaks, s3ep7 (David Lynch, 2017) [7]
Twin Peaks, s3ep8 (David Lynch, 2017) [8] [David Lynch meets Guy Maddin? With 2001’s Kubrick, The Tree of Life’s Malick, Tarkovsky, Carpenter and Cronenberg nodding in the background? What a superb, powerfully cinematic episode; some of the greatest stuff seen in contemporary TV]

Stuff Seen, Jan+Feb+Mar 2017

Sono otoko, kyôbô ni tsuki / Violent Cop (Takeshi Kitano, 1989) [8]
Creed (Ryan Coogler, 2015) [7]
Er ist wieder da (David Wnendt, 2015) [6.5]
Crimson Peak (Guillermo del Toro, 2015) [6.5]
Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015) [7]
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, 2016) [7]
Talking to Americans (Geoff D’Eon, 2001) [TV] [7]
Status Anxiety (Neil Crombie, 2004) [7]
Beruseruku: Ougon jidai-hen I – Haou no tamago (Toshiyuki Kubooka, 2012) [6]
Terminator Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015) [4]
Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015) [5]
Hail, Caesar! (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, 2016) [6]
Inequality for All (Jacob Kornbluth, 2013) [6]
Triangle (Christopher Smith, 2009) [5]
Bill Burr: Why Do I Do This? (Shannon Hartman, 2008) [8]
Bill Burr: Let It Go (Shannon Hartman, 2010) [7.5]
Bill Burr: You People Are All the Same. (Jay Karas, 2012) [7.5]
Bill Burr: I’m Sorry You Feel That Way (Jay Karas, 2014) [7]
Bill Burr: Walk Your Way Out (Jay Karas, 2017) [7]
Aliens (James Cameron, 1986) [8]
Predator (John McTiernan, 1987) [7.5]
Commando (Mark L. Lester, 1985) [7.5]
The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984) [9]
Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984) [7.5]
Hjernevask, ep. 1-7 (Terje Lervik, 2010) [7]
Silicon Valley, s1 ep. 1-8 (Mike Judge, 2014) [8]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep1 (Niels Arden Oplev, 2015) [7.5]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep2 (Sam Esmail, 2015) [7]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep3 (Jim McKay, 2015) [7]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep4 (Nisha Ganatra, 2015) [6.5+]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep5 (Jim McKay, 2015) [6.5]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep6 (Deborah Chow, 2015) [6]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep7 (Sam Esmail, 2015) [6]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep8 (Christoph Schrewe, 2015) [7-]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep9 (Tricia Brock, 2015) [7]
Mr. Robot, S1 ep10 (Sam Esmail, 2015) [6-]

Stuff Seen, Oct+Nov+Dec 2015

Zui hao de shi guang / Three Times (Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 2005) [6]
Le voyage du ballon rouge (Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 2007) [6-]
Tian xia di yi quan / Five Fingers of Death (Chang-Hwa Jeong, 1972) [7]
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Robert Fuest, 1971) [7+]
Dr. Phibes Rises Again (Robert Fuest, 1972) [6]
The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972) [6.5]
The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973) [8]
Thriller – en grym film (Bo Arne Vibenius, 1973) [7]
Cani arrabbiati (Mario Bava, 1974) [Arrow Video 2014 restored edition] [8]
Blade Runner [The Final Cut] (Ridley Scott, 1982-2007) [9]
Gorky Park (Michael Apted, 1983) [6.5]
Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) [8]
Year of the Dragon (Michael Cimino, 1985) [7.5]
El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970) [7]
My Name Is Julia Ross (Joseph H. Lewis, 1945) [7.5]
So Dark the Night (Joseph H. Lewis, 1946) [7]
Terror in a Texas Town (Joseph H. Lewis, 1958) [6.5]
They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948) [7.5]
On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray & Ida Lupino, 1951) [7]
Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956) [7.5]
Gonin [Director’s Cut] (Takashi Ishii, 1995) [7.5]
La rose de fer (Jean Rollin, 1973) [6]
John Wick (Chad Stahelski & David Leitch, 2014) [6]
The American (Anton Corbijn, 2010) [5]
Snake Eyes (Brian De Palma, 1998) [6.5]
1408 (Mikael Håfström, 2007) [6.5]
Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992) [6.5]
The Telephone Book (Nelson Lyon, 1971) [6.5]
Spy (Paul Feig, 2015) [4]
Femme Fatale (Brian De Palma, 2002) [6]
The Black Dahlia (Brian De Palma, 2006) [5]
Redacted (Brian De Palma, 2007) [6]
Crime d’amour (Alain Corneau, 2010) [6]
Passion (Brian De Palma, 2012) [7] [underrated, and an uncommon example of a Hollywood remake far superior to the original]
Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015) [7]
The X Files, s10 ep1 (Chris Carter, 2015) [5]
The Great Flamarion (Anthony Mann, 1945) [6.5]

Stuff Seen, September 2015

La promesse (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, 1996) [7.5]
Rosetta (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, 1999) [8]
True Detective s2 ep1 (Justin Lin, 2015) [6]
True Detective s2 ep2 (Justin Lin, 2015) [6]
True Detective s2 ep3 (Janus Metz Pedersen, 2015) [6]
True Detective s2 ep4 (Jeremy Podeswa, 2015) [7] [a very well directed+edited final part rescues the whole ep]
True Detective s2 ep5 (John Crowley, 2015) [7] [finally an ep with a decently written script, the characters act and talk like humans for the first time]
True Detective s2 ep6 (Miguel Sapochnik, 2015) [6.5]
True Detective s2 ep7 (Daniel Attias, 2015) [6.5]
True Detective s2 ep8 (John Crowley, 2015) [6.5] [whoa, what a letdown this second season was. the plot is messy and unbalanced (making no difference in the way important points and useless details are treated), dialogues are overly descriptive and lacking subtlety, characters’ dark aspects feel forced (and, mostly, just sketched) and their behaviour robotic (the underrated Colin Farrell is the only one who managed to translate the stiff, mechanic material into a human performance). in general, the writing takes the 1st season’s few flaws and multiplies them, without keeping any of its strengths. the direction is nothing special and lacks atmosphere – even if Crowley and Podeswa did a better job than the others. we can also see TV series fanboyism in action once again: audiences and critics hated “The Counselor” (2013), but both the direction and the script of that movie are better than most TD s2, which in certain aspects seems to imitate them (being Pizzolatto an obvious fan of McCarthy), especially in the way the story ends – but again, TD’s ending is the worst one of the two, given its smothering moralism (the lead male characters aren’t stupid and displayed both negative and positive traits, but they sinned, so they all must be punished in the end) and meek conventionality (the women remain alive and safe). anyway, is Pizzolatto a one-trick pony? were Fukunaga and Arkapaw the real driving forces behind s1? I guess the answer is positive in both cases.]
The IT Crowd, s1 ep1 (Graham Linehan & Ben Gosling Fuller, 2006) [7]
Le gamin au vélo (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, 2011) [6.5]
Deux jours, une nuit (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, 2014) [8] [it’s unbelievable how many missed the point of this film, and apparently stopped watching it before the last, unambiguous, 5 minutes. yes, cruel workplace politics, the contrast humanity vs. business economics, and the socially destructive power of financial problems are all recognizable themes, but most of anything else this is a movie about depression, and the hard journey to overcome it. after being pushed and forced by her husband to have a series of difficult face-to-face interactions, the protagonist discovers the true nature of a supposed ‘friend’ and, on the other hand, the existence of new, this time real, supportive friends too. at the end of her ordeal, she’s a better person (see the immediate negative answer to her boss’s offer), and she realizes that finding the strength to fight again and a human ‘safety net’ of support was what she needed to feel alive again, even if things didn’t turn out right. it’s, of course, also a political film; but there are enough subtleties and complexities to make it acceptable, and its heart is in the right place. all in all, one of the absolute 2-3 best works by the Dardenne brothers.]
The Emerald Forest (John Boorman, 1985) [7.5]
Long men kezhan / Dragon Inn (King Hu, 1967) [7]
Xia nü / A Touch of Zen (King Hu, 1971) [7.5]
Da zui xia / Come Drink with Me (King Hu, 1966) [6.5]
Dareka no Manazashi / Someone’s Gaze (Makoto Shinkai, 2013) [short] [6]
Kong shan ling yu / Raining in the Mountain (King Hu, 1979) [6.5]
Beyond Rangoon (John Boorman, 1995) [6]
The General (John Boorman, 1998) [7]
Les revenants, s1 ep1 (Fabrice Gobert, 2012) [6.5]
Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa, 1980) [8]
The Running Man (Paul Michael Glaser, 1987) [7]
Pitfall (André De Toth, 1948) [7.5]
American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014) [7]
Hai shang hua / Flowers of Shanghai (Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 1998) [7]

August 2015 Log

VIDEO:
Ah fei zing zyun / Days of Being Wild (Kar Wai Wong, 1990) [8.5]
Dung che sai duk / Ashes of Time [Redux] (Kar Wai Wong, 1994-2008) [7.5]
2046 (Kar Wai Wong, 2004) [7]
La spiaggia (Alberto Lattuada, 1954) [8]
Redline (Takeshi Koike, 2009) [6]
Bron/Broen, s1 ep1 (Charlotte Sieling, 2011) [6]
Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma shimatsu / Samurai Rebellion (Masaki Kobayashi, 1967) [7]
Kari-gurashi no Arietti / The Secret World of Arrietty (Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2010) [7.5]
Kokuriko-zaka kara / From Up on Poppy Hill (Gorô Miyazaki, 2011) [7]
Colorful (Keiichi Hara, 2010) [6]
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, 2014) [7.5]
Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki / Wolf Children (Mamoru Hosoda, 2012) [6.5]
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014) [6.5]
Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1956) [7]
Le doulos (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1962) [8.5]
In Search of the Perfect Human Diet (C.J. Hunt, 2012) [6]
Trudno byt bogom / Hard to Be a God (Aleksey German, 2013) [8] [I’m not sure how to rate this one – it’s so unique there’s almost nothing you can compare it to. It can be a frustrating experience, because of the dialogues and narrative chosen form, which eliminated all the linearity and the philosophical substance from the original 1964 novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, making its story obscure and incomprehensible; but, at the same time, it’s an astonishing accomplishment in terms of visuals and originality. More than anything else, it’s the remarkable testament of director Aleksey German, who passed away just before its completion, and dedicated 15 years of his life to make his nightmarish vision a reality. Critics have compared its scenic design, image composition and hallucinated feel to Bosch and Bruegel, but, even if those are probable influences, I’d say the main tone is more akin to a twisted, dark Rabelais.]
The Bank Dick (Edward F. Cline, 1940) [7.5]
L’armée des ombres (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969) [6.5]
Wake in Fright (Ted Kotcheff, 1971) [8]
L’Apollonide (Souvenirs de la maison close) (Bertrand Bonello, 2011) [8+]
Night Mayor (Guy Maddin, 2009) [short] [7]
Glorious (Guy Maddin, 2008) [short] [6]
A Trip to the Orphanage (Guy Maddin, 2004) [short] [6]
Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair (Guy Maddin, 2009) [short] [6.5]
Very Nice, Very Nice (Arthur Lipsett, 1961) [short] [8]
21-87 (Arthur Lipsett, 1964) [short] [7.5]
A Trip Down Memory Lane (Arthur Lipsett, 1965) [short] [7]
Pandora (Derek May, 1971) [short] [7]
Le cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970) [8.5+]
Un flic (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972) [7-]
Permanent Vacation (Jim Jarmusch, 1980) [6]
Yin shi nan nu / Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee, 1994) [6.5]
Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1984) [7+]
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch, 2013) [7-]
Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch, 1989) [5]

BOOKS:
Ivan Turgenev – Padri e figli [LINK] [8]
Platone – Apologia di Socrate [LINK] [9]

Stuff Seen, May+Jun+Jul 2015

Take the Money and Run (Woody Allen, 1969) [7]
Sleeper (Woody Allen, 1973) [6.5]
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (Woody Allen, 1982) [6.5]
Q (Larry Cohen, 1982) [6]
The Jerk (Carl Reiner, 1979) [6.5]
Nine to Five (Colin Higgins, 1980) [5]
TRON (Steven Lisberger, 1982) [5]
The Dark Crystal (Jim Henson & Frank Oz, 1982) [6.5]
Missing (Costa-Gavras, 1982) [7]
History of the World: Part I (Mel Brooks, 1981) [7]
Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981) [7]
The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Joel Schumacher, 1981) [6]
Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, 1981) [6]
Firefox (Clint Eastwood, 1982) [6]
The Entity (Sidney J. Furie, 1982) [5]
The Beastmaster (Don Coscarelli, 1982) [6]
Sorceress (Jack Hill, 1982) [5-]
The Sword and the Sorcerer (Albert Pyun, 1982) [6]
Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974) [5]
Melvin and Howard (Jonathan Demme, 1980) [6]
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014) [6.5]

Stuff Seen, March+April 2015

Hustle (Robert Aldrich, 1975) [5]
Stay Hungry (Bob Rafelson, 1976) [6]
Murder by Death (Robert Moore, 1976) [7]
Over the Edge (Jonathan Kaplan, 1979) [6]
The Amityville Horror (Stuart Rosenberg, 1979) [5]
When a Stranger Calls (Fred Walton, 1979) [6]
The Muppet Movie (James Frawley, 1979) [6.5]
Elvis (John Carpenter, 1979) [6]
The Fog (John Carpenter, 1980) [7.5+]
Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981) [8]
The Howling (Joe Dante, 1981) [7.5+]
1941 (Steven Spielberg, 1979) [7]
Stripes (Ivan Reitman, 1981) [7+]
National Lampoon’s Vacation (Harold Ramis, 1983) [7.5]
Outland (Peter Hyams, 1981) [7+]
Prince of the City (Sidney Lumet, 1981) [8.5]
The Verdict (Sidney Lumet, 1982) [8.5]
Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975) [7.5]
The Edge (Lee Tamahori, 1997) [7]
House of Cards s3 ep1 (John David Coles, 2015) [6.5]
House of Cards s3 ep2 (John David Coles, 2015) [7]
House of Cards s3 ep3 (Tucker Gates, 2015) [6]
House of Cards s3 ep4 (Tucker Gates, 2015) [7]
House of Cards s3 ep5 (James Foley, 2015) [6.5]
House of Cards s3 ep6 (James Foley, 2015) [6.5]
House of Cards s3 ep7 (John Dahl, 2015) [6.5]
House of Cards s3 ep8 (John Dahl, 2015) [6.5]
House of Cards s3 ep9 (Robin Wright, 2015) [7]
House of Cards s3 ep10 (Agnieszka Holland, 2015) [6]
House of Cards s3 ep11 (Agnieszka Holland, 2015) [7]
House of Cards s3 ep12 (Robin Wright, 2015) [6.5]
House of Cards s3 ep13 (James Foley, 2015) [7] [some good moments here and there, but, overall, this 3rd season was a letdown]
Diner (Barry Levinson, 1982) [7]
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling, 1982) [7.5]
Gloria (John Cassavetes, 1980) [6.5]
Ordinary People (Robert Redford, 1980) [6.5]
S.O.B. (Blake Edwards, 1981) [7]
Creepshow (George A. Romero, 1982) [6.5]
Twilight Zone: The Movie (Joe Dante/John Landis/George Miller/Steven Spielberg, 1983) [6]
The Postman Always Rings Twice (Bob Rafelson, 1981) [8+]
…All the Marbles (Robert Aldrich, 1981) [7.5]
On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell, 1981) [5]
Swamp Thing (Wes Craven, 1982) [5]
Slap Shot (George Roy Hill, 1977) [6.5]
Heavy Metal (Gerald Potterton, 1981) [6.5]
Death Wish II (Michael Winner, 1982) [5]
Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982) [7]

Il complottismo non ha un colore, ma forse ha una causa

Post sul complottismo che mi tenevo in canna da un po’ di mesi.

Colgo l’occasione perché non molto fa è uscito un articolo su Scientific American (link) che ricorda tre dati a proposito delle tendenza a credere alle teorie del complotto.

1) “Surveys by Uscinski and Parent show that believers in conspiracies “cut across gender, age, race, income, political affiliation, educational level, and occupational status.” People on both the political left and right, for example, believe in conspiracies roughly equally, although each finds different cabals.”

Come hanno confermato vari poll e studi prima di questo, il complottismo non è né di destra, né di sinistra.
Qui userò l’aneddotica: come chiunque capace di ragionare, anche a me capitò, appena iniziato a capire cosa fosse la politica, di imbattermi nel “pensiero” estremista di un colore e dell’altro, e di riconoscerlo in entrambi i casi come imbecille ad essere generosi. Ciò che non focalizzavo ancora bene era il fatto che entrambi utilizzassero della retorica complottista per portare avanti le proprie tesi – questo perché ho scoperto cosa effettivamente fossero i complottisti solamente una volta avuta l’ADSL e finito per sbaglio nel pozzo online delle paranoie in libertà di cui prima ignoravo l’esistenza.
Tuttavia, nel frequente caso in cui il grosso degli anni giovanili venga passato in ambienti saturi di litania anti-USA, anti-Israele e anti-“sistema”, ci si può facilmente convincere che ormai, in quest’epoca post-WWII e post-68, il complottismo abbia trovato casa per l’appunto nel pensiero sessantottino del “fight the system” e bla bla; tale è stata per un certo periodo anche la mia sensazione. Un confronto, anni dopo, con utenti americani, mi ha svelato che, ironicamente, nel Nuovo Continente il complottismo viene al contrario visto come “di destra”, a causa del loro peculiare assetto politico in cui la dx (che sia conservatrice o libertarian) non è mai dx sociale, ma sempre contraria alle politiche stataliste, e quindi è la dx quella ad essere scettica e, nei casi estremi, paranoica nei confronti del “sistema”. Ma anche la loro sx è mobile, e abbraccia con disinvoltura aperture complottiste nel momento in cui le fa più comodo (dal noto esempio dell’omicidio JFK a tutte le paranoie contro le corporation, non ultime quelle sulla Monsanto e su tutti gli OGM).
La prova empirica di quest’assenza di colore, nel nostro panorama nazionale, è stata data dall’entrata nell’arena politica del M5S; costruito su più basi sedimentate (il seme originario può essere individuato negli spettacoli grilleschi anni ’90), sfruttando un’onda lunga di sentimenti antisistema, non s’è fatto scrupoli ad accogliere e far leva a livelli diversi su complottismi d’ogni genere (1, 2, 3, 4), e, allo stesso tempo, ha pescato a strascico lungo tutto l’asse da dx a sx.
A distanza di tempo, appare evidente come le ideologie estremiste poggino le proprie basi su complottismi più o meno celati: per essere estremisti, costoro necessitano di prendere una posizione manichea secondo cui “l’altro” è il nemico assoluto che li opprime, mentre ammettere proprie colpe e mancanze finirebbe inevitabilmente per trasformare il bianco/nero in una scala di grigi, e dunque ricadere verso posizioni centriste.
Più o meno celati, perché spesso il ragionamento complottista si annida dietro talmente tanti strati di retorica che può diventare difficile riconoscerlo come tale. Un caso che non può più essere celato, perché la Storia ce l’ha consegnato già analizzato e sviscerato, è quello del filone antisemita che culminò nel periodo nefasto cui resterà indissolubilmente legato. Un caso molto più insidioso, perché nascosto dietro problemi sociali realistici e al ricatto morale del politicamente corretto, è quello, tipicamente di sinistra, del dividere la popolazione in gruppi identitari a cui rivolgersi politicamente e ai quali vendere il concetto (complottista) secondo cui ogni loro problema è causa di un altro gruppo identitario, stavolta di maggioranza, che li ha sempre oppressi – ignorando platealmente il fatto storico che, lungo il corso del tempo, anche in quella stessa maggioranza il potere è sempre rimasto nelle mani di una minuscola élite.
E infatti,

2) “Group identity is also a factor. African-Americans are more likely to believe that the CIA planted crack cocaine in inner-city neighborhoods. White Americans are more likely to believe that the government is conspiring to tax the rich to support welfare queens and turn the country into a socialist utopia.”

3) Infine, “42 percent of those without a high school diploma are high in conspiratorial predispositions, compared with 23 percent with postgraduate degrees.”
– Come mostrano i dati, la variabile dell’educazione da sola non basta a spiegare la tendenza al complottismo: nonostante si rilevi una riduzione, quasi un quarto di chi possiede titoli superiori alla laurea triennale ne risulta ancora non immune.
Potrebbe quindi essere spiegata col benessere economico? Pare di no (vedi più sotto).
Io ho una teoria su quale sia il fattore principale, che ho dedotto da una ricerca sul web in cui ho confrontato varie fonti.

Click to access PPP_Release_National_ConspiracyTheories_040213.pdf

La prima pagina riassume un po’ tutto il discorso di poc’anzi. C’è una distribuzione equa di chi crede ai complotti, che varia grandemente a seconda di come viene formulata la domanda (non essendoci una definizione universale di cosa sia esattamente un complotto, la formulazione della domanda può contenere questo o quell’altro bias e variare di molto il risultato), ma anche del tipo di complotto (NWO e global warming schiaccianti tra i repubblicani, e invece pari sulla guerra in Iraq).

World poll sul 9/11, condotto nel 2008. Nigeria e Kenya figurano meno complottiste dell’Italia.

A cui va aggiunto http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9760.2008.00325.x/abstract
Si legge solo l’inizio, ma riporta che nel 2006 il 22% dei canadesi credeva al 9/11 come complotto attuato dagli stessi americani. Più della media mondiale, e di varie nazioni nettamente più povere, di due anni dopo.

Click to access ZogbyPoll2007.pdf

Poll sul 9/11, la correlazione dell’income non è evidente. Si abbassa e poi si alza quando si passa alla fascia di reddito più alta. Quindi nemmeno la variabile del reddito basta a spiegare la tendenza al complottismo.

Click to access -public-opinion-on-conspiracy-theories_181649218739.pdf

Vari poll condotti nel tempo. Pochissimi considerano la variabile income, ma, dove c’è, mostra variazioni di pochi punti. La variabile dell’istruzione ne mostra di più, ma ci si aspetterebbe maggiori variazioni, soprattutto tra high school e college. Il dato ricorrente è di nuovo che, pare, siano equamente distribuiti demograficamente e politicamente, e che varino a seconda del tipo di complotto. Ad esempio, il complotto sull’assassinio di King vince nettamente tra le minoranze etniche e i democratici.
Nelle loro parole:
“We don’t find compelling evidence from the data in this document that particular demographic groups are susceptible to a belief in conspiracy theories. It depends on the theory. Middle-aged Americans are more likely to believe in the JFK assassination conspiracy than older or younger ones. Young people and Democrats are most likely to subscribe to conspiracy theories about 9/11. Women are more likely to believe foul play was involved in Princess Diana’s death. While the demographic data presented here are by no means exhaustive, we’re hesitant to endorse what much of the literature concludes – that the young and less educated are more prone to conspiratorial instincts.”
– Quindi sia il loro risultato, sia quello più diffuso, mostrano come correlazioni principali delle altre rispetto alla povertà.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8309.2010.02018.x/abstract
Studio che mostra come ci sia una correlazione tra un tipo di personalità machiavellica e la credenza ai complotti. Chi crede ai complotti, è probabile ne farebbe uno.

Click to access Issue-88.pdf

Compendio di vari studi. Alle pp. 8-9 elenca la serie di correlazioni finora emerse da essi: bias cognitivi, alti livelli di rifiuto delle norme sociali, autoritarismo, sensazione di impotenza, basso self-esteem, bassa fiducia, cattivo carattere, alti livelli di cinismo politico. Conclude sostenendo ci siano vari meccanismi sia cognitivi che sociali in gioco, e che, per ora, oltre alle correlazioni trovate, gli studi siano ad uno stadio troppo precoce per avventurarsi nell’individuare quali siano invece le cause.
Alle pp. 23-24, parlando della possibile ma in realtà sfuggente correlazione tra complottismo e autoritarismo, secondo me c’è il passaggio che riassume tutto:

“Several studies by Monika Grzesiak-Feldman have shown that anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in Poland are more likely to be held by authoritarians. Likewise, a study in the 1990s by Yelland and Stone found that authoritarians are more amenable to persuasion that the Holocaust was a hoax, orchestrated by a massive Jewish conspiracy. Viren Swami, a psychologist at the University of Westminster, has demonstrated that anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are associated with authoritarianism in a Malaysian sample as well. But there’s some evidence pointing the other way as well. In a separate study, Swami and his colleagues at the University of Westminster showed that 9/11 conspiracy beliefs are associated with negative attitudes toward authority, and John W. McHoskey found that people high in authoritarianism were more likely to be anti-conspiracist when it comes to the JFK assassination. So what’s going on here? It looks like the content of the theories is what matters. The research on the psychology of authoritarianism has long shown that authoritarians tend to derogate and scapegoat minorities, which seems to be what’s going on in a lot of these anti-Semitic cases: a minority is being blamed by the majority for the ills of society. Swami’s Malaysian study actually proposes that the anti-Semitism shown by the Malaysian respondents might be a proxy for anti-Chinese racist attitudes: there are very few Jews in Malaysia, so Malaysian authoritarians might displace their ethnic aggression from a relatively powerful and socially accepted minority group (Chinese) onto one that is almost non-existent in their society and so can be scapegoated without consequence (Jews). In contrast, a lot of modern conspiracy theories have a very populist and antigovernment tone. They blame authorities for the evils of society, not minorities – the American government blew up the Twin Towers, MI6 killed Princess Diana, and so on. So it makes sense that authoritarians would be less likely to believe that their governments are conspiring against them and anti-authoritarians would find this idea more appealing. There’s no uniform association between authoritarianism and conspiracy belief – it seems to depend on the specifics of the theory in question.”

Scapegoat, ovvero scaricabarile. De-responsabilizzare psicologicamente se stessi caricando qualsiasi colpa sulle spalle di un capro espiatorio.
Riassunto del tutto: la correlazione tra complottismo e povertà non è abbastanza consistente da poter essere indicata come la principale, sia per ciò che emerge dai risultati esistenti, sia perché mancano ancora studi in materia, e, allo stesso tempo, non c’è una correlazione solida quanto ci si aspetterebbe con l’istruzione.
C’è invece una correlazione ormai provata tra complottismo e varie attitudini psicologiche individuali, tra le quali emergono soprattutto alienazione, “scapegoatism” aka scaricabarile, senso di impotenza, sfiducia nel mainstream (e quindi anche nelle istituzioni) di qualsiasi tipo.
Ipotesi mia finale: da questo si può ipotizzare che un paese come l’Italia, nel quale indoli come scaricabarile e sfiducia sono diffuse, e il declino (che la nostra pessima classe giornalistica si ostina ancora a chiamare “crisi”, ma questo è un altro discorso) è manifesto ovunque da troppi anni, produca più complottismo di, ad esempio, un paese con meno benessere ma avviato verso lo sviluppo, in cui i cittadini hanno iniziato ad avere fiducia nelle istituzioni perché stanno funzionando.
Il dubbio che resta è di essere nel pieno di un circolo vizioso: le persone che tendono ad avere tali qualità negative, e dunque credere ai complotti, magari lo fanno solo per via di una proiezione sul prossimo di ciò che (consciamente o meno) “sanno” di loro stesse, ma ciò significa anche che, se tali persone ne avranno la possibilità, costruiranno o popoleranno istituzioni disfunzionali che avranno l’effetto di propagare una sfiducia verso le stesse sul resto della popolazione, e dunque a loro volta alimentare i sentimenti che danno vita ai complottismi.