The basu! Guide to the Movies

#QuoVadisAida? 🤭 Holy [Bleep]! Holyyyyy [Bleeeep]! Shattering, devastating, unflinching, blood-boiling, nerve-racking cinematic triumph that will have your heart thumping out of your chest until the bitter end…and then the epilogue will splinter it into a million pieces. Look, I know, I know, when you're dealing with subject matter such as this, it's a little, uh, crass, to discuss the craftspersonship behind it, but it is a movie, after all, so… my goodness, *stunning* writing and directing by young Zbanic(give her *all* the #Oscars), distilling something as massive as this historical backdrop into something as universally relatable as the travails of a single family all the while keeping you in the loop of all the machinations going on, or more accurately, *not* going on behind the scenes by the powers-that-be. It's all aided by the precise editing, deliberately, and inexorably building up to the ending. And the cinematography: textured, well-lit, meaningful closeup...

#TheFather Yup, the hype you've heard is true, the acting is *extra*ordinary: Poots, Colman, &, of course, the one, the *only* Hopkins! What a film debut for young Zeller(wait, he's already a well-established, award-winning playwright, jeez, over-achieve much🤩!), six #Oscars noms right off the bat, helped, of course, by the great Hampton(full disclosure: I only know his estimable film output…sheesh, I gotta get more cultured😜). And the production designer…that London flat, holy [bleep]!, such stuff as real-estate-dreams are made on. Oh, yeah, the acting, look at this point *every*one loves Colman, the World's Worst Kept Actors'-Actor Secret, and she is absolutely vital here, good g*d she breaks your heart(and chills you for an #Amour-second😨). But, dude, how about ray-of-sunshine Poots(finally given a chance to act in her mother tongue)?, in fact, that Bathrobe Whisky Scene will be studied in acting workshops for decades to come. But, dude, this th...

#Minari Wonderful, just bl**dy wonderful! So achingly beautiful it breaks your d*mn heart! Full marks to Chung for having the confidence in the audience to let this genteel movie wash over you, instead of having it hit you over the head. A lovely, nuanced, little film that doesn't resort to easy, cliched stereotypes(trust me, you'll know the lack of them when you don't see them), and that takes the auto out of autofiction, so instead of navel-gazing, you have a piece of work that speaks to all of u.s. …er, I mean, us, us😇! Talk about the invisible art of editing, the gentle rhythms here, well, to use a sports cliche(c'mon man, hasn't the film taught you anything?), lets the movie come to you. Just open your heart and let it in. The central ensemble fits together like a perfect jigsaw. Man, Yeun(TBH's fave on #TWD from the *very* beginning), following the Joseph Gordon-Levitt hit-TV-to-indie model, a CU has to be next, no? And, good lord, Youn is so ...

#SoundOfMetal Good, clean, #Whiplash-meets-#ChildrenOfALesserGod Awards-Bait fun. Don't think too hard about cute stuff like plot mechanics, character motivations, character decisions, logistics, etc. etc. etc., just marvel at the how precisely the young filmmaker crafted this in a (#Sundance?)lab for maximum Festival/Awards/#Oscars impact. He could teach a whole MasterClass on that(may as well, no?, everyone seems to be teaching everything on ye olde MC these days). More than Acting-With-A-Capital-A, I truly am a sucker for The Rylance School of Underacting-With-A-Capital-U-And-A that Ahmed seems to excel in. It truly is a remarkable thing: stare longingly off camera with a blank expression and let the critics fall over themselves trying to fill in the, ahem, blank. Works…every…time. And Cooke's accent, I'm always surprised to find out she's British, she sounds pukka American to me. Kudos to Becker and the sound design, principally because there's so mu...

#TIME A simply extraordinary documentary that will move you beyond words. I think it was the late, great #RogerEbert who remarked that the, uh, remarkable #UpSeries wasn't merely about time, but it was time itself. Man, is that observation so apt here. Time - the mesmeric, no-talking-heads, you are there editing rhythms, it completely pulls you into the family's world so you acutely feel the individual impact that an abstract, and nebulous?, a concept as the criminal justice system has on people. The black and white cinematography is incredible, really, making the whole film film out of time, timeless, and those long, slow, ominous zooms…and speaking of editing, I missed the #Oscars bylaws disqualifying documentaries from the editing category…I mean, if there was a film that deserved an editing #Oscar nom, it's this one. But, yeah, it's all at the service of the remarkable woman at the center of it all and her quest: Fox Rich. Charismatic, relentless, firm, ...

#Voyagers Good, clean #LordOfTheFlies YA poli-sci-fi fun. Expert craftsmanship, especially when you consider the budget for indie-sci-fi's. Beautiful work by the DP(well-lit scenes so you don't have to squint, imagine that?, and those richly saturated colours!), composer(not resorting to easy sci-fi tropes), and esp the drool-worthy production design(that, too, on a budget!). And, to top it all off, expert sound design by Hsu, the hardest-working (sound)man in the indie film biz👏! And the kids?, well, they're certainly all right, highlighted by a terrific villain in Whitehead, kid's a keeper. - - - #NeilBurger #PaulHsu #ScottChambliss #EnriqueChediak #TrevorGureckis #FionnWhitehead #TyeSheridan #LilyRoseDepp(#VanessaParadis's kid!, boy time moves fast😳!) #ChanteAdams #ViveikKalra(#BlindedByTheLight!) #IsaacHempsteadWright(#GoT!) #ColinFarrell(yes, that CF, be still TBH's beating heart!) @voyagersfilm @lionsgate @neil.burger

#MaRaineysBlackBottom Good, clean, sturdily-made stage-to-streaming-screen fun. But if it's ultimately remembered for the final part of Boseman's cinematic legacy, then that's a fine thing to be remembered for 😔 Man, you could write a thesis untangling all the stuff that's roiling underneath😳… BTW, Santiago-Hudson, have you seen his one-man #LackawannaBlues?! That's one of the all-time theatrical experiences! That ensemble fires on *all* cylinders: Coyne(love that guy, ever since the shortlived #Alcatraz, which was also the first time I saw someone called, oh, I dunno, #RamiMalek🤩), Domingo(dude's fantastic in his inimitable slow-burn way), Paige(a lot of easy charisma), Turman(completely stealing the show in #Fargo, which reminds me, I gotta finish it!), and, of course, Davis, once again just laying waste to all before her…powerhouse. But, yeah, Boseman, man, Boseman. Before his untimely passing I think the mainstream audience was mostly aware o...