All is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013)

8/10
I was surprised at just how much I liked this. It's Robert Redford stranded at sea once his boat and communications equipment are damaged. He's the only actor in the movie (credited as "our man" in the credits, which I enjoyed) and there's barely any dialogue at all. It's a really strong performance, and Redford was a good choice for it - he has a natural believability in the role.
There's just something in his weathered face that suggests that Redford absolutely could have endured something like this at some point. I liked how there was very little grandstanding - no dramatic physical transformation, no "I have fire!!!!!" moment like in Cast Away. I could have even done without the few "will he or won't he be saved?" moments (the rote scenes you would expect - the radio starts to work then dies, the ships pass by but don't see him). I get they're there for dramatic tension, but I want to see a movie do away with those and just deal with one guy working with what he has in front of him and nothing more - no tawdry flickering hopes for survival. Is that misanthropic?
Anyway my strong feelings about those points made me think I would hate the ending all the more, but I really didn't. I liked how it was done, the way it pleasantly subverted my expectations made me like the film as a whole even more.
I also liked the decision to keep the character almost ultra anonymous. Outside of his opening speech (which is really his farewell, and the movie then rewinds to the events of the preceding 8 days), we don't know anything about the character. Who has he left behind? Who, in his speech, is he apologizing to? And for what? Is anybody waiting for him? Did he leave on good or bad terms with whatever life he had back on land? I'm glad the movie didn't shove those questions in our faces but instead made us pose them ourselves. All the more effective.

Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu, 1959)

7/10
An Ozu film involving a small community (neighborhood I guess) and their amusing internal politics, the central ones being the neighborhood's collective rent that went missing instead of being turned in, and two of the young boys refusing to speak until their parents buy them a TV. It is typical Ozu - charming and lightly humorous and a little poignant at times. I don't love any of Ozu's movies but they're all enjoyable on one level or another.

The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)

7/10
I didn't love the movie but I enjoyed filling in the blanks in my on-going lessons in movie history. It's amazing how many things derive from or riff on or parody scenes from this movie. And why did this weird little movie have such a giant impact? I liked it but I think it was very much of its time. I also understand the soundtrack is part and parcel with the movie but wow I could have done with a lot less Simon & Garfunkel.

Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)

8/10
It was enjoyable. L.A. was as grimy as Jake Gyllenhaal looked. Gyllenhaal himself was good but maybe not as fantastic as I was expecting (i.e. I'm fine with the Oscar snub). I'm curious to see what writer/debut director Dan Gilroy comes up with next, this was quite an interesting movie for a debut feature. I think in a few decades time we'll look back on movies like Nightcrawler, Drive, Spring Breakers and Killing Them Softly (those were the ones that came to mind) as some kind of loose Americana movement or socio-political statement or something that I'm not qualified to put together...but they all seem to be from the same cloth.
One thing I really liked was how the "relationship" between Lou and Nina took place almost entirely off-screen. Hallelujah, a movie that didn't try to shove its two characters getting together (I can't in good conscience call it a "romance") in our faces.

Mystic River (Clint Eastwood, 2003)

5/10
Never saw it way back when so I watched it last night. I'm a little surprised at its widespread acclaim, especially for the acting (personally I found both Penn and Robbins to be extremely hammy). I didn't find the story particularly interesting, and the point the movie was making was sinister but ultimately also a little silly. I guess for the personnel involved and the hype I expected a lot more than a kinda interesting detective story with a kinda goofy lesson at the end of it.

(Spoiler talk below)

The reason I didn't really like it because Sean Penn, in the movie, is essentially a gangster. Right? He went to prison, he was hanging out with bad dudes, he had killed people before, all that stuff. So the fact that he killed Tim Robbins' character...it was like, yeah, that's about what I would have expected him to do.
It would have been way more chilling to me if Penn's character was just a regular guy who suddenly lost his daughter to a senseless murder and then was torn between the dilemma of taking out immediate vengeance (but possibly on the wrong person), vs. waiting for the law to take its due course.
I thought the speech at the end by Penn's wife (about the strong doing what they have to do to survive no matter what) was kind of interesting and helped save the ending for me a little bit, but not much to raise the movie above a "meh" for me.

We're the Millers (Rawson Marshall Thurber, 2013)

6/10
This was okay, I heard it was one of those "looks stupid but is actually pretty funny" movies and it was. Maybe not that funny but it had its moments and didn't really annoy me, except for the rote and inevitable romances between the characters. Meh, there's worse out there.

The Game (David Fincher, 1997)

7.5/10
The surreal feel of the movie reminded me a lot of Fight Club, although I guess if I'd seen them in the proper order it would be more fair to say Fight Club was reminiscent of The Game. It, like Prisoners, was very interesting in that I always wanted to see where it went next. I got the feeling while watching the movie that its big explanation at the end was probably going to be a bit of a letdown (or something relatively simple) and it was. It's a fun watch but probably not something I'd go back to in a hurry.

Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)

8/10
I thought it was really good. I put it on at midnight thinking I'd probably fall asleep watching it and I ended up staying up until 2:30am to see the whole thing play out. The kind of movie that grabs you from the first second. I didn't love the way the mystery ended up playing out but it was still satisfactory to me. Really liked the cinematography, Gyllenhaal and Jackman were both great, and the plot was twisty enough without being convoluted or predictable (although a little unbelievable at times).

A Hard Day's Night (Richard Lester, 1964)

7/10
Pretty mildly enjoyable. Fun to take a trip to such a weird time when a movie like it could be made. I've always liked the Beatles' dry humor and there's a good deal of it too, but a lot of silly stuff too. Anyway it's all good fun. Only complaint was that some of the songs were repeated.