Letterboxd 4 Wednesday - 5/22
Hey everyone. Welcome to another edition of “Letterboxd 4 Wednesday”. The weekly series where I cover what films are in my top 4 on Letterboxd (mostly notably 4 of my favorite films) and share my mini thoughts on them. Let’s dive into what are those 4 picks for this week.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), dir. George Miller
You can make an argument that this is the best film ever made, and honestly I would agree with you completely. It’s crazy that George Miller’s return of the world of Mad Max is one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever to be created by man kind. This is what every action film should inspired to be. One that is unhinged, raw, intense, and batshit insane that offers some of the most breathtaking and most extraordinary crafted action sequences put into film no thanks to the masterful editing by Margaret Sixel that keeps the pacing on edge and straight to the point and the beautiful cinematography by John Seale tranced in so many beautiful oranges, yellows, blues, and reds to make the world feel like a living crazy hellstorm. Yet it never puts too much favor in the style and presentation in order to sacrifice the simple yet affective storytelling and providing fully realized and compelling characters (including Charlize Theron’s Furiosa) and themes about redemption, self discovery, hope, rediscovering your purpose in this world, and fighting against oppression through the best use of visual storytelling/worldbuliding ever to be put in blockbuster and adding tons of emotional stakes within them to make us care and root for them whenever the action comes on screen. It’s masterwork of filmmaking and storytelling (on top with it being the best silent film ever made) that should be celebrated and adore for the end of time. I can’t wait for what Miller has in store for Furiosa.
Heathers (1989), dir. Michael Lehmann
A clut High School classic that proves to be one of the best to ever do it. This dark comedy touches on subject matter such as teenage suicide, popularity, identity, revenge, and self determination in the most hilarious, dark, and deeply profound ways imaginable that’s both rooted in the 80s culture it takes place in and even relevant in today’s age of our lack of self confidence culture within the youth and social media as a whole. All of it is conveyed beautifully through it’s fantastic script, great sense of humor/quotable lines, strong visual presentation, and one of the greatest characters in fiction with Veronica Sawyer (with an equally iconic performance from Winona Ryder to boast). Nothing much else to add, it’s that f-in good.
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), dir. Hayao Miyazaki
This is one of those cases where you found out this is the debut film from one of the most celebrated an critically adored studio in the medium of animation (and in general), and then you say to yourself “how in the living fuck is this a debut feature?”. Because Studio Ghibli proved themselves they know what they were doing with this film by providing innovating animation, great characters (including one of the best female leads in an animated film period), a beautiful score, a socially relevant message, and powerful emotional moments that got me teary up. Truly incredible stuff and one you should watch if you haven’t yet.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016), dir. Akiva Schaffer & Jorma Taccone
Easily one of the most under appreciated and most brilliant comedies to come out in the last decade or so. One that masterfully pokes fun of the self importance within pop stars and celebrity entitlement in todays day of age through hilarious bits of humor and a clever use of the mockumentary format to get more insight of the whole matter. Yet it’s also an engaging and touching story about egoism, pride, friendship, and learning not to put your success above the people and things that defines you and what you value in life through great characters, incredible songs, and a beautiful heart lies into everything on screen and how it’s payed off in an incredible ending that you will leave you so happy upon watching it. If you haven’t seen it, go and watch it. You won’t regret one bit.
That’s my “Letterboxd 4 Wednesday” for this week. I hope you enjoy reading my picks for this week, and let me know what’s your top 4 on Letterboxd for this week.