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Old 09-26-2021, 03:38 PM   #3494
Itse
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Watched some good films at the local "Love & Anarchy" film festival, I'll mention the ones that I think are worth attention.

- Poly Styrene: I Am Cliché. A documentary of the original female punk / New Wave icon and an overall fascinating character, Poly Styrene, made by her daughter. This was just excellent, you really get into both the life and music of Poly, there's plenty of interesting period footage and insight, and the whole thing is done with a lot of respect for not just Poly but everyone involved (even when they didn't necessarily earn it). See this or lose your punk creds.



- I'm Your Man (originally "Ich bin dein Mensch"). A German comedy drama about a middle age researcher who begrudgingly has to evaluate a "human relations robot" that's made to be "her ultimate dream man". This managed to be both quite funny ("grown up funny", more chuckles than laughs) and between the lines surprisingly deep about what people want and need from an intimate relationship. Dan Stevens (Legion, Fire Saga) is the male lead, so that might be a familiar face for Americans. A solid date night choice for those who like their humor subtle but not overly complicated, mostly positive vibes and lots of potential to be a conversation piece for some real deep dives.



- The People Upstairs (originally "Sentimental").
A one night one apartment Spanish comedy about a couple who invite the upstairs neighbours to visit and take up the topic of loud sex. The first half of the movie was really funny with constant social tension. The last third kind of fell flat for us, but it was still an enjoyable watch as a whole and easy to recommend for anyone who enjoys a nice relationship drama comedy and doesn't mind it being in Spanish. Another movie I could recommend for a date night, would go great with wine and cheese.



- Bliss (originally "Glück"). A German indie drama about two female sex workers falling in love. I really enjoyed it, but this one is very stereotypically "European" and "Independent", with lots of handheld cams, focus on mood over story, ton of long closeup shots of faces, and characters you have to build from relatively fragmented bits of information. This isn't going to be for everyone, but if you can tolerate the indie cliche's, I thought it was really interesting and touching. I've never seen sex work depicted so matter of factly in a movie. The whole thing is very down to earth and realistic, a slow burner with very few traditional movie story beats, but I found the whole thing quite interesting.

Trailer contains nudity.
NSFW!


- Pleasure. A Swedish feminist drama about a girl trying to make it to the top in the LA porn business. The film is shot in the US and mostly in English, with plenty of actual porn business people in the smaller roles. It's about as explicit as you could make without actually being porn, but other than not high on titillation. Whether you have a positive or a negative view of the porn business, this movie is unlikely to change your mind, but it was still quite interesting and really well acted. The music use was a bit "art school" for my taste and the plot has very European sensibilities (meaning; low on drama and a story arcs, high on mood and ideas).

Trailer contains nudity.
NSFW!

Last edited by Itse; 09-27-2021 at 09:40 AM.
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