film reviews

spoilers ahead. these are the films i've watched since 2024. no previous listings. also, i've left out any i didn't write about.

film	information	review
	Waterloo [Sergei Bundarchuk, 1970] 3.8/5.0	date of writing this :- 16/06/2024 just watched waterloo and man.. this film is INSANE. wasn't even planning on writing anything about it but i can't stop thinking about it again. the sheer scale of this film is smth else. 15 thousand real extras, real uniforms, real cavalry charges.. also, no CGI, no special computerised effects. it's literally a freakin battlefield come to life. the way bondarchuk directs those huge formations, chaos, fights, the marching.. it does feel like you're right there, watching history irl. napoleon's downfall in this film hits much me more harder than it does when i read books around him. his expressions, breakdowns.. the actor rod steiger absolutely nailed it. felt like he WAS napoleon. wellington in the film is cool asf, calculated side was the perfect contrast too. i still cant get over how this was made in 1970. everythings practical, no modern tech, just pure effort and vision. and man, that final act? the buildup to napoleon's defeat, the intensity of those charges, the music.. just pure goosebumps, man. this didn't felt like a war film or smth, but a damn visual time machine. idk man, i've seen quite a lot of war films, but nothing really comes close to this in terms of ambition and authenticity. this film isn't that "oh yea, war is bad"(i do like those kind of films) but a film on real historical battle. you can absolutely feel the weight of every moment. for anyone who gives a shit about history or cinema on a MASSIVE scale.. this film's a freaaakin must. will definitely revisit again sometime. its just that good!
	Taxi Driver [Martin Scorsese, 1978] 4.1/5.0	Just finished taxi driver '76 and here's what am thinking... 13/12/2024 It's around 2:00 AM, just completed the film.. that first hour was smth else. all the loneliness, alienation, mental health stuff.. raw. kinda felt it, or like TRULY felt it. travis's spiral into this detached, kinda broken guy in a decaying world felt great. but the second half? thats where i got kinda lost. he goes from stalking a senator, wanting to kill him for god knows what reason, then boom.. suddenly its all about a random 12 year old. outta nowhere. yea, saving iris gave him a "purpose" or whatever, but the way it all escalates.. shooting up those pimps and goons felt too quick, almost rushed. i mean, its good, don't get me wrong, but i kinda wish it took more time to.. idk.. 'build'? the first half nailed the slow unraveling, but the second half? its just chaos. which i get, maybe the alienation and isolation build that thing to do? the guy was gonna kill the senator for what reason idk but when this girl came in, his ambition changed and that probably in some way or another made him a.. accidental hero? overall tho, the film is brilliant. made me feel gross and uncomfortable in all the right ways. just left me wondering if the second half could've been better if it went deeper like the first. but whatever, in the end, am stuck bw seeing travis as this accidental hero or just a guy completely lost in his own head who happened to do one thing right. the movie doesnt really spell it out for.. which i guess is why its still talked about. i will definitely re-watch it someday for sure!
	Blue Velvet [David Lynch, 1986] 4.3/5.0	date of writing : 29 June, 2025 as i've mentioned, i will act like i've never watched films before '24, and will exclude my past experiences; when i played this film, it felt like i'm watching smth real. VERY real. the opening credits with the track blue velvet going on in the background, with the surreal imagery.. it's just SOOO great, hypnotic. also, one of the major factors of the film which i liked was the colour grading of the film, i mean how fabulous the color grading is, man. i usually love media from 70s till 90s, and i love footages of that era.. the eerie, spooky and grainy quality is smth which attracts me pretty much. apart from these, the first 30 minutes of the film felt like a wholesome detective film until beaumont enters dorothy's apartment, everything starts getting disturbing from here. i mean, i was loving the chemistry b/w sandy and beaumont, but then the film takes a whole ass drift from that path. i think it kinda embodies the fact that how good and evil things are present in this world, like sandy's innocent character to a terrifying and disturbing plot of dorothy and dennis hopper. i was also kinda astonished due the fact that actors were REALLY naked thru many scenes. i freakin loved the acting of the antagonist and dorothy vallens. frank booth, to be precise, he's performance is SOOO great, that it still disturbs me. also, the soundtrack in the film is pretty great as well, david lynch can utilise silence in some of the best ways, also loved those tracks like blue velvet, in dreams.. i'm 16 rn, and i skipped abit of those scenes, i wasn't emotionally prepared for all this and it was too disturbing for me. i'm definitely gonna rewatch this when i turn 18, 25 and numerous times subsequently. this film literally changed my perception of a "film". i love this film, my first david lynch film of 2025, and i absolutely adore it.
	Mulholland Drive [David Lynch, 2001] 4.7.0/5.0	date of writing : 04.12.25 bro.. i just finished mulholland drive and i swear to god.. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DID I JUST WATCH?! like, dude, my brain is still vibrating in some liminal pocket dimension. i went into this thinking, "haha blue velvet but maybe less violent?" i exactly said this "regardless, it's 2:34 am imma watch the 2nd half of mulholland drive i think i watched around 1 hours and 40 minutes of the film this one's way more confusing than blue velvet, but atleast it's not THAT violent as blue velvet. i will write a proper review afterwards, lol." and then i hit the play button at around 2:40am, i got absolutely blindsided by the emotional horror of realizing this movie is.. kinda just ME but projected into deranged hollywood nightmares. like okay listen.. i swear something possessed me to pause the movie at that 1h40 mark a couple days back. like some weird instinct was like, "nah dude. not right now. you're not emotionally stable enough for the back half yet". and BOY WAS THAT INSTINCT CORRECT!!! because the second half?? dude. that shit hit like a truck made of guilt, longing, failed dreams, and unresolved trauma. i thought i was safe because "oh it’s not as violent as blue velvet".. but nah. this film said: "okay, what if instead of violence i just stab your entire sense of identity?" cool. thanks lynch. and i'm NOT even kidding when i say this film felt SOOOO personally relatable it was almost uncomfortable. like diane selwyn?? that is one of the most painfully HUMAN characters ever. she's messy, bitter, hopeful, melancholic and relatable and trying so hard to be someone that the world never let her be. she wants things to go in her way, but it just doesn't :c so, she dreams.. DREAMS. her dream self felt like the exact fantasy world i retreat to when reality is just too sharp?? like it's literally the same vibe as my maladaptive daydreaming or actually dreaming where i create a version of myself who's talented, amazing, a great environment, is loved and everything FINALLY goes right. like dude.. her dreaming felt like MY dreaming. the escapism. the "i will fix everything in my head because i cant fix ANYTHING out here". SOOO SOOO SOOSOSOSOOSOSOS REALL!!!! and the way the movie slowly rips that dream apart?? bro. WHY IS THIS SOOO PERSONAL??!! also, the fact that lynch is basically like "yea, figure it out yourself, i'm not explaining shit" is honestly kinda iconic. man really crafted a psychological puzzlebox and then dipped. after i finished, i legit had my head down on my desk like: "ok what the fuck is happening. what happened to me. what happened to HER. what even IS real." then i fell into the deep dark hole of reddit threads + video essays + interpretations just to feel slightly less insane. but honestly?? once you watch the whole thing, it DOES start to click. it's like the film rewires itself in your head. the whole "ok so the first half is the dream.. the fantasy where diane gets the girl, gets the career, gets the attention.. and then reality just shows up like hahah no” it's SOOO devastatingly real?? because the real diane is.. well, she's burnt out. failed dreams. unrequited love. jealousy eating her alive. hollywood promising her the world and giving her crumbs. she loses camilla, she loses her shot at success, she loses herself.. so she builds this dream world where she gets everything she wanted. and then it collapses. violently. the diner monster?? bro that thing is literally depression manifested like a cryptid. the cowboy?? i think that hat is like a trauma one wears.. i mean also him telling you "wake up, idiot" the blue box?? it's the symbolism for reality, i guess? the moment you can't escape the truth anymore. and the club silencio scene.. DUDE. that whole "there is no band.. it is all an illusion" scene??? that hit so hard. like the film just turns and looks directly at YOU and is like: "you know the dream isn't real, right?" and betty/diane literally starts shaking because she KNOWS. like bro tell me that isn't the exact same feeling of waking up from one of those intense daydream spirals where everything felt so comforting and perfect and then suddenly you're just.. you again. and bro.. the music?? the roy orbison "crying" cover??? i don't know why but it unlocked a whole new layer of the film for me. because after the film ended, i went back to listen to the original.. but the main thing isn't this, it's when i went back to listen "in dreams" by orbison(the song used in lynch's '86 film blue velvet). dude, i was just VERY intrigued by the fact that how the lyrics started making MUCH more sense than ever. the lyrics suddenly feel like they were written for diane selwyn. or maybe me. or maybe anyone.. as if like david lynch had referenced this as well. like just listen to the lyrics: "i go to sleep and i drift away, into the magic night.." that's literally her. that's literally ME. escaping into dreams because real life is unbearable. ALSO, inside the dream, where rita says "let me sleep, sleep will fix things" it shows how we think escaping reality makes us more yk feel better.. "in dreams i walk with you, in dreams i talk to you.." that's diane trying to recreate camilla in her fantasy. trying to rebuild a version of her that stays, that loves her back. and then: "but just before the dawn, i awake and find you gone.." bro. that part almost hurt. waking up and losing everything again. that "i can't help it if i cry" line?? dude, TOO REAL. too real for comfort. when rita says "i thought the dream would fix everything” i swear i felt that in my fucking bones. like YES. EXACTLY. that's literally why i daydream this hard.. because we think it will fix things. because the dream world feels safer than life ever did. and then reality hits her like a train and everything unravels. the dead body. the blue box. the cowboy waking her up. the old couple haunting her like the ghosts of innocence she can’t get back. and then dude.. the ending. i just sat there. in silence. closed my eyes for quite a good amount of time. like DAMN. this whole film is basically one giant emotional mirror and unfortunately it reflected a little too much. i swear lynch made this movie for people who dream too hard, love too hard, and fall apart quietly. rest in peace, david lynch. anyway. i'm still decomposing emotionally. but holy shit, what a film.
	Persona [Ingmar Bergman, 1966] 4.6/5.0	date of writing : 07 December, 2025 Persona(dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1966). It's 07.12.2025, exactly 12:00AM I've started this film after completing Mulholland Drive. I won't underestimate films like these. I thought Mulholland Drive was just a lesbian wholesome story, but God, or perhaps David Lynch, had other plans. Well, let's jump into the film without further adieu -> The film starts with a kid lying in the bed, they look quite, you know.. i don't know. I've absolutely NO idea why the director kept a kid lying, accommodating themselves in the bed, and then looking at some sort of blurry footage being unfolded as the introductory part. I've got absolutely no ideas. Regardless, right nwo i'm at around 22 minutes into the film, and what i can say is that - every single frame is truly a painting. It just looks so freakin' good!! At the moment there's this scene, when Vogler & Alma leave the hospital and are now in some sort of green-y environment. The tracking shot, the mise en scene, the flowers.. even though the film is in black & white, it surpasses the quality of many coloured new films. This specific scene feels SOO vibrant, as if i can literally smell the ethereal feel of the trees and flowers. not gonna lie, when this scene unrolled, i literally took a long ahh sniff, and tried to smell the petrichor or fougere scent, lol. EVERY. SINGLE. FRAME. IS. A. PAINTING. -> Oh, i remember one thing - when Vogler is watching the Television, but then she gets frightened up by the harrowing visuals of the Vietnam War(the famous self immolation of thích quảng Đức). And mind you, the film was LITERALLY made during the heights of Vietnam War, meaning it's almost as if an auteur like Bergman showed the horrifying visuals of the Gaza war, right now! That's not happening now, i guess. the bourgeoisie has pretty much got the media, and anyone who tries to go against these reactionaries, they're met with a lot of controversy, or most of the times getting suppressed. Moreover, it sounds very unique to me, that someone used this in their film, they didn't include a distant past, like including visuals of 50 year old war or something, something which was actually happening in real time. It's also more about something i've not experienced with current media, like imagine as the audience, you're literally watching harrowing visuals unfold in real time, and they're not some "old war orchestrated by an imperialist state 30 years ago" - IT'S LITERALLY SOMETHING HAPPENING AT THE MOMENT!! It may sound "Oh, it's not that deep".. but to me.. i don't know, it kind of intrigues me in a way nothing ever has. -> An excerpt/snippet - "All the anxiety we carry within us, all our thrwarted dreams, the unexplicable cruelty our fear of extinction, the painful insight into our earthy condition have slowly crystallized our hope for an other worldly salvation. The tremendous cry of our faith and hope against darkness and silence is the most terrifying proof of our abandonment and our unuttered knowledge" -> Now, Sister Alma here starts talking about how she adores the idea of devoting one's life to something. To give meaning in your life. I think I would kind of agree with this, but won't someone just exhausted with it? isn't it kind of a never ending thing which will be mostly filled with struggles, fatigue, exhaustion and existential crisis, i mean- atleast for me. She talks about seeing nurses being nurses their entire life, but isn't it a bit or atleast for me.. VERY boring?? I'm not sure though, it's kind a naive. -> Dude, the shot at 43:34 is just SOOO freakin' visually breathtaking. the trees, the reflection of Alma on the pond, the way she's standing, the mise en scene, the feel of that frame... It's absolutely a painting!! -> Ok, so the film takes a steep turn at around 46-47 minutes. Some crazy ahh effects start unfurling, I'm not aware how Bergman's editor did this back in '66, Yesterday I saw a video on how a few seconds of film is trimmed from the film and dude i was sooo glad that I've got a computer, lol. Regardless, we see a resurgence of the somewhat the same visuals which were present in the beginning of the film, we see the same hand which is struck by hammer multiple times, and what intrigues me is that it happens after showcasing Alma's face, and i'm clueless because how she goes from an extroverted, talkative person, to a more reserved, introverted person..?? I'm also very confused because she broke a glass, but when Vogler walks past it, she says nothing even when she gets hurt. And that's where the scen goes from stability to absurdity. Are we seeing a sudden shift in the "Persona" of Alma?? Well, I'm not very certain about this, let's see how the film goes on... -> Well, guess what? It was just a gimmick?? They're now reading books in the beach.. or is there something deeper I've to dig in..?? -> Oh damn, dude!! I loved this scene, FUCK Vogler for spilling Alma's personal feelings. I guess, she must have trusted Elisabeth truly, since she never got the chance to speak up and when Alma did speak up, this imbecile spilled her confession while disrespecting her. I don't like these people. But the thing is Alma's character is very relatable, you know?? Alma's words - "Can a person really live without bubbling away, without lying and making up excuses and evading things? Isn't it better to let yourself be silly and sloppy and dishonest? Maybe a person gets better by just letting herself be who she is." SOOO FREAKIN' TRVE, ALMA!!! I genuinely love the character of Alma soo much, lol. I love how vulnerable she is, how she wants to express herself in this filthy cruel world, how she wants to life the way she wants.. I strongly resonate with her character -> Ok, so i completed the film, didn't write anything between because i couldn't even fathom what happened in the film after that part. Regardless, the same kid from the beginning can be seen at the very last part of the film. Seems like i will have to go scour up forums, check out Youtube videos regarding its analysis & interpretation. So, that my cornball arse unfathomable brain gets it. *It was about 2:33 AM, i just went to bed, used phone for a bit, played Boards of Canada and slept* -> It's exactly 02:30 PM, and Ok, let's talk about the film. Ok, so i understood almost nothing about the film, lol. I'm not sure but it could be a blending of "persona" kind of thing, like how it happens very surreal-y in Mulholland Drive.. but i'm not fully into this interpretation, but again, there are tons of scenes & shots where they blend into each other.. especially the last part where different POVs are shown one after another. Maybe the real person has split themselves into two persona of Vogler - a reserved, silent, dark personality while Alma - an expressive, open, brighter personality..?? and the stark contrast between them is very strikingly evident/apparent. Personally, I resonate with both of the characters, like parts of them, especially Alma. I would also like to revisit the part, the scenes at the very beginning of the film, they boy, who comes again at the last. I read some theories regarding how this boy could allegedly be the son of Vogler or Alma or whoever. But the thing is, what i can see is, what i see the boy is.. a some of a viewer, like me, like us, who is looking at how these stories, history, art is being unfurled and me, the body, the boy can't really do much to sort of "get inside it". Sure, I may do a character/story analysis, go in-depth, read history extensively, but I won't exactly become the person, the figure, the people itself. As I'm writing this, anyone reading this gets no more than 3-5% of what I'm going through or feeling like. You have to actually become ME in order to actually understand it. I think it's also quite evidence in the film itself, like Alma repeatedly saying Vogler how she doesn't understands her. This film has a very dense, profound, deeper meaning to it and it will have thousands of different interpretation considering how rich it is philosophically. I will surely rewatch this film as I grow up, I will rewatch this multiple times. It's one of the films which is absolutely worthy of multiple rewatches.