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CD Smiles added 2 items to their collection

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Albums Heard in 2021 list

March 22nd Year: 1983 Genre: Glam Metal Red Hot

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 3 items to their collection

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Re-Watched in 2021 list

March 20th Directed by: John De Bello 2nd Viewing Previous Rating: 3 After: 2.5

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

March 19th Directed by: Wayne Berwick Blu-Ray.

4 years ago

CD Smiles rated Promising Young Woman

 Promising Young Woman 5/10

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

March 17th Directed by: Emerald Fennell What a trip. How could a movie that for the entire first hour inspired near hatred from me sort of manage to turn it around by the end? Well, let's talk about that first half. It begins as the most "men bad" movie I've ever seen, literally everyone is over-the-top horrible, and while every situation presented is a very real and serious one, I appreciate the sentiment, but the approach is entirely cartoonish. Maybe that's intentional. The presentation is so strange, especially contrasted with the second half, we have this sort of vignette style, which other than just sort of telling you what the character is about, and slowly cluing you into the main thrust of the story, the events of these vignettes have (mostly) no bearing on where that story goes. In these moments I was ready to call this one of the worst movies I've seen, music, dialogue, acting, story, all bad, to reiterate; possibly intentionally bad. The one scene I liked was the one with the school dean, and I had to try to ignore a lot of bad acting and dialogue to enjoy it. Now, the second half. It's almost an entirely different movie but we've established our protagonist. I realize those scenes I said had no bearing taught me details that make revelations in this section of the story feel natural. I'm engaged. There is a particular scene involving a licensed piece of music that is entirely iconic and transcends this movie as it's own little piece of art. This movie is very detailed and thought out. I like how this movie never does what you expect it to, but I think people who aren't like me and were enjoying the entire ride would find that ending pretty unsatisfying. I did too, but mostly because I don't think it makes any sense at all. I'm willing to be proven wrong on this. In conclusion, I think this movie is pretty important, and my reaction to it honestly has me a little shaken. I'm really reflecting on myself, and it's amazing that I went from calling this a turd to the moment I'm in now. I don't feel like I can assign a star rating to this, so I'm going right down the middle. If someone were to ask me my opinion of this movie, well, the more I think about it, the more I think my opinion doesn't really matter. Downloaded.

4 years ago

CD Smiles rated Judas and the Black Messiah

 Judas and the Black Messiah 5/10

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

March 16th Directed by: Shaka King If you're watching all the Best Picture nominees I recommend watching this one BEFORE Trial of the Chicago 7. So it's another "based on true events", but this movie feels theatrical, I'm sitting here watching this on a laptop but I felt like I was in a theater at times, I got really sucked into the atmosphere. The story here is tragic and fascinating and the director actually DID something with it outside of just portraying events. It's kind of amazing this film is allowed to exist, this is the sort of thing were it made in China or something would just get shut down, this is a tremendous indictment relevant to a systemic problem that is extremely relevant now. Feels wrong to say this after that but I didn't love this as a movie. It's overlong, a lot of scenes drag, it's got good ambiance but I wasn't engaged most of the time. Lakeith is revelatory though, should be Best Actor but Best Supporting, let's gooo. Downloaded.

4 years ago

CD Smiles rated The Trial of the Chicago 7

 The Trial of the Chicago 7 7/10

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

March 16th Directed by: Aaron Sorkin I'm asking way too much of The Oscars at this point, but if we could have one year without a "based on true events" movie... I mean the fact there are no direct biopics this year is a miracle but it's tiring. I'm conflicted because I enjoy learning things, and I learned a whole lot from this movie, this sort of film has it's place but I don't think that place is amongst what's considered the best of the year. Now to talk about this movie specifically, it definitely stands above your average "one of these". I do wonder about the accuracy of the dialogue, if this was taken straight from court records then... well, damn, because it definitely felt too bombastic to be real. I have been proven wrong many times before on such claims. Sacha Baron Cohen is amazingly terrible, Redmayne is so good that he dips into being bad, and the rest of the cast, I dunno, sure. Nobody feels even remotely real, it's really strange but sort of adds to the overall production, which, is good for some intrinsic reason that I cannot suss out. So, the story is really interesting, the acting is "good", the presentation in general is engaging, but does it have value as a FILM? Thinking about this movie is breaking my brain. This is a very good movie with important history to tell. Now it's very obvious where the film stands politically so I can't help but think some of this is embellished, which is slightly dangerous but I think in this case, good natured, the focus seems to waver in the end but that's the product of being based on things that really happened. But to your average person who doesn't torture themselves thinking about this shit, who doesn't spend all their time on Letterboxd, this is just a really good movie. I'm not even going back to proofread this, I dunno what the fuck happened here but here you go. Downloaded.

4 years ago

CD Smiles voted for 2 images

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

March 15th Directed by: Lee Isaac Chung I had no idea where the story was going at any point really, which is a good thing as I expected some somewhat predictable story beats to happen, none of which did, nothing really feels like it's driving in a particular direction, just flowing free. While I don't think there was a particular powerful message trying to be delivered here, there were a lot of powerful little moments. Part of me wants to say it's a little bit insubstantial, just a nice movie you watch and forget about, I think it's just because I can't directly relate to the situation, but I do realize and appreciate this is a beautiful little window into Korean culture, and no other of the many Korean films I've seen has given me specifically this. Downloaded.

4 years ago

CD Smiles rated We Care a Lot

 We Care a Lot 8/10

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Albums Heard in 2021 list

March 13th Year: 1985 Genre: Alternative Greed

4 years ago

CD Smiles added 2 items to Movies Re-Watched in 2021 list

4 years ago

CD Smiles voted for an image

4 years ago

CD Smiles added James Bond 007: Nightfire to wanted list

 James Bond 007: Nightfire 

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles rated The Toxic Avenger Part II

 The Toxic Avenger Part II  8/10

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

March 5th Directed by: Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz I can't think of one instance a director's cut is better than the theatrical cut, and this is no different. Please make sure you're watching the original cut, holy SHIT this movie felt so long. We start with an absolute belter of a fight scene, I don't think there could possibly be a more absurd scene. The fact that these ideas were thought up by a human, and then acted out by, and paid for by other humans is something that I have trouble accepting. This one scene ranks up at the top with Riki-Oh, I know I'm putting this over huge but I couldn't believe what I was seeing. There's more of that sprinkled throughout too. A lot of people seem to have trouble with the movie's pace dying down when Toxie goes to Japan. I am definitely biased but I didn't have a problem with any of that part of the movie, I'm attributing any dull scenes to me watching the extended version of the movie, and even then, it's still 1980's Japan so there's something to be excited about. When the movie really starts to overstay it's welcome is when they go BACK to America, and again I'm just hoping these scenes weren't in the original cut. The goods really outweigh the bads here, this is an absolute must see for anyone who gravitates towards this stuff. Blu-Ray.

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles voted for list

2021 Wrasslin (10 webtv items)

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles added 2 items to Movies Watched in 2021 list

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

February 27th Directed by: Eric Rohmer "I saw a Rohmer film once. It was kind of like watching paint dry." This quote from Night Moves was always scoff-worthy, but unfortunately apt with Rendezvous in Paris. This is especially shocking as I have a particular affinity for 90's Rohmer, but this didn't do a whole lot for me. If I had never seen a Rohmer film before I might be delighted by the fashion, environments or characters but every one of those elements is outdone by another of his films. I found this one to be very forgettable, it's still lovely, of course, but not in outstanding fashion. MUBI.

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles posted 35 images [View All]

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

February 27th Directed by: Shinobu Yaguchi I was thinking this movie could turn out to either be wacky Nichijou-esque pandemonium or just a normal, boring story about a jazz club where they suck and then get good at the end. Well it's sort of directly in the middle, -chef's kiss- just right. It's not at all your average music movie, it's inventive at every turn; I want to tell you about one plot point involving how they get money to afford their instruments, it is ridiculous beyond belief but I couldn't with good conscience, spoil it. It's genuinely funny and just sickeningly adorable, it's pure Naoko Ogigami style comfort food as a movie. Downloaded.

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles posted 29 images [View All]

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Movies Watched in 2021 list

February 24th Directed by: Emir Kusturica A big war epic, but not at all what comes to the mind when you think "war epic", being that there are no scenes of grand scale warfare, just the goings-on of socialist resistance group in the face of the German invasion of Yugoslavia. The tone of this film is really attractive, it's like a Jodorowsky/Fellini party and it becomes hard to believe this was almost made in the 21st century because it's straight up new wave as hell. I really liked the first act, and somewhere in the middle we get to a point where the film is aware of being a film, and it becomes self referential. It becomes pretty much impossible to understand in the third act, but there's comedy value in that, also, assumedly a political message. I didn't really get anything out of this besides just enjoying the warm atmosphere and what story I could follow, no heartstrings being tugged here. It's definitely technically a great film though, I think anyone would be able to acknowledge that, and hopefully have more of an impact made than it had on me. Downloaded.

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles rated Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered

 Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered 8/10

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Albums Heard in 2021 list

February 23rd Year: 1996 Genre: Black Metal Glorification of the Black God

4 years, 1 month ago

CD Smiles added 1 item to Albums Heard in 2021 list

February 23rd Year: 2021 Genre: Post Hardcore Sing for the Damage We've Done

4 years, 1 month ago