#19, Rear Window - #20, Spirited Away

Okay, I'm really behind, and I doubt many people still read this blog. In order to keep myself satisfied, however, I am determined not to retire this little project. However, I am fully confident that I will not be able to keep up with my regular reviews. Since many of them have been poor quality, anyway, I have decided, for at least a while, to eliminate the full reviews. Instead, I will make a few comments on the film, and give it a rating, unless I see it as worthy of more. Since many of my reviews have been glowing and redundant besides, this shouldn't be a problem.

I will, however, still write a full article for my Hysterically Good picks (which I need a better name for).

So, without further ado, here are the next few films:

#19 - Rear Window - I actually started a longer review for this one, and almost wish I had continued with it. A fantastic film. One of my favorite Hitchock's. Very ambitious in that it maintains a very static narrative perspective throughout the entire movie, with all but a few shots originating from within Stewart's character's apartment. Wonderfully suspensful and engaging.

Highlights: Fantastic script and cinematography. An engaging story made all the better by its build-up. Keeps you guessing until the very end. Hitchock truly is a master story-teller. Wonderful vignettes and characters that create a slightly disturbing portrait of the nature man's fascinating with voyuerism.

Downers: The usual narrow-minded portrayal of the leading lady that Hitchock gleefully perpetuates throughout his career. The entire film is filmed on what is very obviously a set piece, but that isn't as distracting as it could have been.

Rating: 9

#20 - Spirited Away - I'm usually ambivalent towards Anime, but I hear many good things about this film, so I got a copy. This one is hard to gauge since it was filled with wonderfully imaginative images and characters, but I was really distracted by the English dubbing. It wasn't bad, per se, but I could tell something was just slightly off. And while the images and characters and even the story were really wonderful, beautiful at times, I kind of felt a bit unsatisfied with the pay-off.

Highlights: A touching and engaging story filled with fascinating images. Flowed really nicely, and just had a finely tuned aesthetic that appealed very well to the viewer's emotions and sense of wonder.

Downers: Hard to follow at times. It felt like moments had decided lack of motivation, and sometimes the plot was just forced along. I wanted to know more about the world in the movie. The dubbing really threw me off. Some of the characters, while interesting throughout, simply confused me.

7.5/10