036. The Big Lebowski (United States and United Kingdom - 1998)

[already watched before]

Sarcasm, anarchy, bowling, sunglasses and inappropriate clothing. It had been a long time since I had last watched this film, and I had forgotten how much of an emblematic figure The Dude is. He's the bum we'd all like to be when there's no reasonable perspective of life ahead of us. We envy his attitude, his stupidity, and in some parts, his brilliance. This film is a pathetic experience because it tells a pathetic story; the way it's meant to be told. There's almost no mismeasuring in The Big Lebowski. All the filmic tools that could be used to tell such a dark humoured saga of a loser is used. Although some vague sections could be done without, and some of the actors can lack verisimilitude, the film is pleasurable as hell.

Director: Coen Brothers.

Score

Cinematography: 8.0
Acting: 8.5
Editing: 8.0
Sound: 8.0
Text: 9.0
Concept: 9.0
Premise Execution: 9.0

Average Score: 8.5

035. もののけ姫 / Princess Mononoke (Japan - 1997)

I had watched some bits of the film in another occasion, and had dropped it before the ending due to... well, hurrying up to do something else, I guess. And what a stupid bastard I was in doing that! Princess Mononoke is such a touching, absolutely wonderful film in many regards! Art, sound, linearity, the way the plotline sequence deals with the innovative strategy of mixing up fantasy and anti-industrialist themes... it's just a mouthful of audiovisual delight. Whilst watching the piece, I couldn't help but let tears well in my eyes, and they welled in full honesty of feelings. 'Mononoke forces you to consider both sides of environmentalist causes, dramas, struggles. And you go with the flow, as the film gently takes you with the struggle for survival of its ill-fated characters. A prominent characteristic of Miyazaki's animations. Genial.

Director: Hayao Miyazaki.

Score

Cinematography: 9.0

Voice Acting: 7.5
Editing: 9.0
Text: 8.5
Sound: 9.5
Conception: 10.0 (first time in all of Filmic Jeran thus far)
Premise Execution: 9.5

Average Score: 9.0

007. Fargo (United States - 1996)

"A homespun murder story." Nice little film. It portrays a bizarre plot of a fictional series of murders that the Coen brothers pulled out of different real-life incidents in 1987 in North Dakota and Minnesota. A husband that is greedy enough to plan a fake kidnapping of his wife by hiring two bandits who ultimately destroy his life by killing his wealthy father-in-law, a policeman, two citizens and his wife (sorry for the spoiler, lads and lasses). The drama is full of Midwest hillbilly-themed humour and odd elements of detective narrative (the actress Frances McDormand plays a light-spirited police officer who's in charge of the investigation, and yanked an Oscar for Best Actress out of it). Good one for the Coen bros. I liked it quite a lot.

Director: Joel Coen.

Score

Cinematography: 8.0

Acting: 8.5

Editing: 8.0

Sound: 7.5

Text: 8.5

Average Score: 8.1

005. Welcome to the Dollhouse (United States - 1995)

Now this is an odd one. The protagonist, with whom we sympathise and whom we hate at the same time, suffers from bullying at school and bullies at home, as a way of externalising her frustrations and at once feel like a real person after the humiliations from her classmates. A film of American monsters from the 90s, and satirising the teenage film culture of the 80s/90s, Welcome to the Dollhouse surprised me with its concept, despite its all too trivial dialogue, generally bad acting, and sometimes confusing graphical shot relation.

Director: Todd Solondz.

Score

Cinematography: 7.0

Acting: 6.0

Editing: 5.5

Sound: 5.5

Text: 6.0

Average score: 6.0