faulknerfan123 Reviews

Andrei Rublev (1966)

One of the All Time Greatest Movies

[10/10 · 3 April 2013]

I recently watched the 205 minute cut of Andrei Rublev, on a DVD from the Criterion Collection. At first, I was extremely confused. But soon enough I was able to accept the fact that this would not be a "conventional" movie, so to speak, and sat back and relaxed, ready for one of the greatest cinematic experiences of my life.

That being said, once I was finished, I thought, "Meh." The film seemed to me to be overly long and a bit boring in parts. I still liked it, but thought that it was overrated.

But then I couldn't get it out of my head. I kept thinking about the symbolism, the beautiful black and white cinematography, the somber performances, the haunting soundtrack, and the brilliant direction.

I realized that to view this film, one must be prepared to watch three and a half emotionally taxing hours of pure, unadulterated genius. And so, within a few hours, my opinion of this movie changed to mediocre to one of the greatest movies of all time.

God, looking back on what I've written, I realize that I must sound like a pretentious hipster d-bag. I assure you this is not the case, and my reviews, on IMDb or otherwise, don't usually come across like this. I can only say, this is one of the best movies I've ever seen, and one that requires repeat viewings.

Permanent Vacation (1980)

Pretentious and Overrated

[3/10 · 29 March 2013]

People seem to like this movie only because it's a Jim Jarmusch movie. Now, i'm not knocking Jarmusch, I loved Down by Law, but sometimes his films get a tad too pretentious for me. But I can usually overlook that. But this movie! I hated the main actor, I hated the dialogue (seriously, not even most hipsters talk like that!)and I hated the plot. There were some good shots in there, but all in all I found it irritating, and Aloysius reminded me of why I hate hipsters so much. Every time he opened his mouth I wanted to punch him in the face. Whenever he tried to act cook in front of the girl, I wanted to close my laptop screen and just abandon it. I ended up making it through about forty minutes before turning it off. So I don't know, maybe this was a hidden masterpiece. But I sincerely doubt it, and I don't intend on re watching it to find out. I rate it as a three only because of some of the cinematography.