31 January 2019

Unbreakable (2000)

#Unbreakable (2000)


Still my favourite #Shyamalan film! Such a low-key surprise after his breakthrough #TheSixthSense, it upended the superhero movie, no? MNS, Jackson, Willis, DP Serra & esp the great #JamesNewtonHoward all at the top of their games. Well worth a re-watch!πŸ’ͺπŸ₯›



30 January 2019

Glass

#Glass


Forget the reviews & enjoy a meta #Shyamalan-verse superhero movie feat. Willis's very particular screen presence, McAvoy going full-Tom-Hardy, Paulson's empathetic-Nurse-Ratched perf & Sam Jackson raging against not getting top billing in a film named after his character



29 January 2019

Borg vs. McEnroe

#BorgVsMcEnroe


More ruminative Euro Art Film than rah-rah Sports Movie & catnip for tennis fans! Skarsgard, Novotny & Gudnason are great but #ShiaLaBeouf steals the show "playing" a fiery prodigy who finds acceptance when he finally learns to channel anger & let talent flow...😏



28 January 2019

Puzzle

#Puzzle


Absolutely delightful! Genial character study that offers plenty of nuance and emotion. Ensemble is fab, esp the great #Irrfan (funny & moving livewire) & the great Macdonald (doing so much by doing so precisely "little"). Criminally passed over during Awards Season 😩



27 January 2019

Chadwick Boseman Gives Great SAG Awards Speech

Yo! #ChadwickBoseman FTW!


πŸ™ŒπŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ‘ŠπŸ€›πŸ€œπŸ€ŸπŸ€˜πŸ‘ŒπŸ‘‹πŸ––πŸ€™πŸ’ͺ


#BlackPanther 🐱✊

#SAGAwards 




Djokovic Blasts Nadal to Win 2019 Australian Open 😳

Woah! If #Djokovic starts blasting aces past a fellow alltimer, then that's no, ahem, Djoke🀣🎾😳πŸ’ͺ

Brutal beatdown of never-quit #Nadal gives him 15 slams & moves him past #Sampras. What a time to be a sports fan!

PS #Herbert & #Mahut Career Slam!

PPS #Stosur Home Slam!

#AusOpen





26 January 2019

Naomi Osaka Wins 2019 Australian Open!!

Yo! That was some sparkling, aggressive tennis with so many twists and turns! Congrats to #NaomiOsaka, man, her star-is-born seems to be neverending. Inspirational stuff from #Kvitova, her comeback is πŸ‘

PS. Kudos to #RajeevRam, finally gets his Slam!

Well done, #AusOpen🎾 πŸ€™πŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ





25 January 2019

Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor)

#NeverLookAway


Well-crafted old-school romantic/art/political/war epic with one of the most chilling prologues ever put on film. Gotta love DP Deschanel (#Oscars!) & prod design Buhr & perfs by Masucci, Koch & esp Rosendahl. With so much going on 3hrs(😲) go by with minimum fuss



24 January 2019

Osaka and Kvitova Set Up Huge Finals 2019 Australian Open

Bad luck for #Serena, but at least that #Osaka-#Pliskova semis was a ball-striking/bashing clinic! 


The finals against #Kvitova (how about her comeback?!πŸ‘) should be a corker, nothing like bold, aggressive tennis, eh? Kudos to #DanielleCollins on her run!


#AusOpen




The Hate U Give

#TheHateUGive


Entertaining, moving, nuanced, & just fantstic! Kudos to director Tillman Jr. for juggling so many  warring elements & vivid characters: Hornsby, the great Hall & esp young, ahem, star Stenberg. Hope audiences discover this unjustly-ignored-by-Awards-Season gem.



23 January 2019

Stan & Ollie

#StanAndOllie


Very sweet & extremely sad look at the waning days of everyone's favourite duo #LaurelAndHardy. Enjoy the superb 2-acts-for-the-price-of-1 work by Reilly (robbed by #Oscars!😩) & Coogan, *and* Arianda & Henderson (with a hilariously oily Jones thrown into the mix).



22 January 2019

Kafelnikov (Finally) Makes into Tennis HOF (with Li Na & Mary Pierce)

Our long (inter)national nightmare is over, #Kafelnikov (finally!) makes into #TennisHOF


Congrats also to (the always-fun) #LiNa & (the shotmaking/resilient) #MaryPierce. Now we gotta get #Ivanisevic & #ThomasMuster in!πŸ˜‡


#tennis πŸŽΎπŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ’ͺ✊πŸ€™ 




The Rider

#TheRider


Beautifully realised documentary-fiction hybrid that slowly catches up with you to deliver a meditative, melancholy, moving cinematic experience. Nice work by young director Zhao & her non-pro cast, esp the effortlessly charismatic lead. *Stunning* DP work by Richards!



20 January 2019

Federer (Not-So)Shockingly Upset / Tiafoe Amazing Win Rd. 4 2019 Australian Open

Maybe #GOAT's in the retirement-tour phase...


Or maybe after 4hr razor-thin loss to shotmaking marvel *half* his age, #Federer needs the clay-season ranking pts becuz he's not ready to go gentle into that good night! #RF21!

Kudos #TsitsipasπŸ‘!


PS Thank G*d for #Tiafoe!

#AusOpen




19 January 2019

Liverpool Sweats Out Win Over Crystal Palace

Yeesh! #EPL 2nd half (like #AusOpen) is gonna be nervewracking! Good thing #LFC has  #MoSalah, #Firmino & #Mane, eh?😬


#LIVCRY


Speaking of, hopefully #Federer won't let those #Tsitsipas fans get into his head like nice-guy #DelPo's insufferable fans did at #IndianWells!πŸ˜‘



18 January 2019

Federer & Tiafoe Win Rd. 3 2019 Australian Open

Whew! Good, more-like-a-#GOAT win for #Federer over bright-future #TaylorFritz. Next, another young 'un: #Tsitsipas😱😰


PS. Another great #Tiafoe winπŸ’ͺπŸ‘!


PPS. Bad luck for #Wozniacki & #Bencic.


PPPS. Wasn't #Tsonga-#Djokovic an #AusOpen finals recently?! Man, time flies!⏰πŸ’¨




Minding the Gap

#MindingTheGap


Astonishing!  Like a mini Gen-Z American #UpSeries. Profound, moving, complex portrait of mixed-race blue-collar Americana & the price kids have to pay for their older generation. #Oscars-level directing, editing & music, esp considering the youth at work!πŸ›ΉπŸ“ΉπŸ‘



17 January 2019

Wait, Bradley Cooper has FOUR Guild Noms?! *And* Grammy Noms?!

*Technically*, #BradleyCooper has 4 Guild Noms: #DGA/#PGA/#WGA/#SAG...

& 2 #Grammys noms?! Woah! Let's round upto 5 & add him to #MountRushmore as well! πŸ‘


PS B-Coop was robbed at the #Tonys...he really should be an #EGOT alreadyπŸ˜„

#AStarIsBorn


@desertblossomAZ @FiveThirtyEight



Chungking Express (Chung Hing sam lam) (1996)

#ChungkingExpress (1996)


Ah, #WongKarWai! Still heart-breaking/filling after all these years. Fall in love with all those beautiful people beautifully designed/phographed by #WilliamChang & #ChristopherDoyle. PS. What happend with WKW & CD?! SighπŸ’”


(h/t the "late" great Dan B)



16 January 2019

Federer/Tiafoe/Fritz Win Rd. 2 2019 Australian Open

Yeesh...tough 3-setter vs 189 in Rd. 2... better to get the #GOAT-snafu out of the way early, right... right?!😬 Up next for #Federer: kid #TaylorFritz (#Monfils😭)!


PS. Great wins for #Tiafoe, #Bencic, #Anisimova & #Osaka! *Tough* break for #Opelka.


#AusOpen




Bumblebee

#Bumblebee


Give the Nike scion credit for wanting to save stopmotion animation & graduating to directing retro, kid-&-alien movies with the best 80s soundtracks, ever! Cena is tongue-in-cheek fun & Steinfeld is a winning presence. πŸπŸ€–πŸš—πŸŽ§πŸ˜



15 January 2019

RIP ‪Carol Channing‬

RIP #CarolChanning


Legendary, larger-than-life Broadway star, gone at 97...what a ride! #HelloDolly



If Beale Street Could Talk

#IfBealeStreetCouldTalk


Absolutely enchanting. I'm so down for Jenkins's #WongKarWai-esque swoon-worthy feast for the senses! Speaking of #Oscars, King is (always)great, but so is the ensemble: James, Parris, Henry, Ellis(!) & *esp* Layne. PS. How about that score from Britell?!



14 January 2019

Federer Wins / Murray Loses Rd. 1 2019 Australian Open

Speaking of Last Stands...#GOAT's started (surprisinglyπŸ€—) well vs. tricky #Istomin!


Sadly, (poor)#AndyMurray's didn't, but, as always, he fought to the *bitter* endπŸ˜–


PS. Tough luck for #Isner (#Opelka!) & (always-fun) #Ostapenko


#Federer #AusOpen




The Mule

#TheMule


Another Clint cinematic Rorschach test. Subversive/hegemonic sendup/validation of old white male toxic/justified patriarchy. Also, it's a black comedy/police procedural/family drama. Also, with his real/reel life daughter it's all a meta mea culpa,right? Good/bad stuff!





13 January 2019

Remember When... Federer Won the 2017 Australian Open?!

Hopefully, this sends some good vibes the #GOAT's way... this year (like every year?) could be #Federer's last stand! 😱🎾🐐


Duh-duh-duh!


#AusOpen #AO19



11 January 2019

Andy Murray Announces Retirement Plans...at 31! πŸ˜­πŸ˜’πŸ˜£πŸ˜–πŸ˜«πŸ˜©☹️πŸ™πŸ˜ŸπŸ˜”

Oh no!! Say it ain't so Andy, say it ain't so!!


#AndyMurray announces retirement plans... at 31! Man, that hip injury (same one that got #Guga?) robbed sports of one its most tenacious battlers...& socially-conscious gentleman athletes. Sigh... 😩


#tennis 



10 January 2019

Mahanagar (The Big City) (1963) 1/2.

#Mahanagar (#TheBigCity)(1963) 1/2  


There's a splendid 2.5hr period foreign B&W film about a woman struggling to find her way in a third-world metropolis made by a critically-beloved #Oscar-winning international auteur. The name of that movie is…Mahanagar! (h/t great @aoscott)



Mahanagar (The Big City) (1963) 2/2

#Mahanagar (#TheBigCity) (1963) 2/2


Wonderful film, up amongst #SatyajitRay's very best. Languid, deeply affecting dissection of a family coming to grips with a modernising India. Beautiful work by everyone, esp. the prod design by Chandragupta & lead perf by #MadhabiMukherjee



09 January 2019

Aquaman

#Aquaman⁠ ⁠Attachment.png


Good #PacificRim-Meets-#Waterworld fun. I'm totally down for Momoa & Wan's melodramaoperatic-ishtyle…but the heavy lifting's done by Heard & *esp* Kidman. PS. #Pitbull sampling #Africa for the Sahara sequence… yaaaaasssss!!!! πŸ˜‚πŸ€£πŸ˜…πŸ‘πŸ‘πŸ™Œ




08 January 2019

Alfonso Cuaron Gets FIVE Guild Noms for ROMA!

Man, @FiveThirtyEight should dig into the numbers behind #AlfonsoCuaron's FIVE guild noms (#DGA, #PGA, #ASC, #WGA, #ACE)!😲 

He belongs on the #MountRushmore of directors/producers/DPs/writers/editors/human beings!


PS. Kudos to #Netflix's awards-worthy #ROMA #Oscars campaign!πŸ’ͺ











Leave No Trace

#LeaveNoTrace


Wonderful gem of an indie film & all-too rare cinematic exploration of white, western poverty. Delicately put together by Granik & DP McDonough. Great work by Dickey, Foster & esp McKenzie(πŸ‘!). Too underresourced for #Oscars, maybe it'll get all the #IndieSpirits!



07 January 2019

Alabama Loses National Championship!

Ha! Remember, a loss for #NickSatan, er I mean #Alabama, is a win for all that is good in this world! *


Congrats, I suppose, to #Clemson, & whoever it was that was playing QB & zinging the ball around.


* Actually do feel bad for #Tua, the kid's a fighter.


#CFBChampionship

India Wins Test Series in Australia for the First Time!

Un-bl**dy-believable! To win a Test Series in #AUS*…man, this will go down in #IND #cricket history. 

Well done #Virat…& of course our great #CheteshwarPujara!

PS. I'm so down for a thunder-and-lightning/odd-couple buddy-comedy with #Pujara & #Pant#PujaraAndPant!!!! πŸ˜‚πŸ€£ 🏏