Movie recommendations

While it’s not our main focus on the blog, we also have a great appreciation for the seventh art. Watching a movie takes more time than listening to a song, but in the end, an 80-minute album doesn’t lag far behind a 90-minute film. So, whenever our limited time allows, we’ll be adding movie reviews, film recommendations, and some soundtracks we enjoy in this category. Our aim is to introduce some of our favorite films, others of interest and lesser-known ones, all while advocating for them.

While occasional negative comments might slip through, like with the review of I Origins, our usual approach is to seek out the positive. Because not all cinema is Hollywood, nor is it an overly calculated industry. In reality, it involves a more personal effort from those trying to capture an idea on the screen. This sometimes leads us to question how far we should go when crafting a movie review. The key is to avoid harm, though that can be hard to define considering that the affected party should ideally be the judge of it.

For instance, we love writing movie reviews with humor, but it’s easy to slip into satire, relying too much on sarcasm or divulging plot details. So, with these elements in mind, you’re likely to find numerous contradictions between what we’d like to be and what we become when we write, much like what happened to Ingmar Bergman, as we discussed while talking about The Seventh Seal. This is mainly because cinema is deeply personal to us; we experience and love it intensely. This makes us cherish imperfect films as if they were perfect (because to us, they are), and vice versa. As an example, consider the review of Cinderella (2015), focusing on its costumes as well as its well-known moral lesson.

Furthermore, when you add the possibility of writing a review minutes after finishing a movie, the heat of the moment (positive or negative) can lead to a more impassioned opinion.

Movie Reviews, Director Spotlights, Actors, and Soundtracks

In addition to providing critiques of these three types of films, which we’ve decided to categorize for easy discovery, we also have spotlights on filmmakers, musicians, and actors. In the first case, we have the example of Don Hertzfeldt, an animation director with a strong background in short films. He’s gained fame through some quirky and uniquely humorous works, including his own take on the famous Simpsons introduction, where he openly expressed his view on the show’s decline (or at least that’s how we interpret it).

In this same category, you’ll also find the filmography of Ingmar Bergman, about whom there’s little we can add given his renown. Shifting to musicians tied to the film industry, we have an entry dedicated to the career of Max Richter, known for his work on The Leftovers and numerous other projects completed years before that series.

Lastly, in the third category focused on filmmakers, we explore actors. While we haven’t delved as deeply here, we’ve paid tribute to actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman, who passed away at the age of 46. This sad event led us to write an article about Naya Rivera, aiming to honor her role as Santana López in one of the greatest series of the 2010s (even though its first season aired in 2009). This also prompted us to discuss the best songs from Glee.

This last article also serves as a reminder that we offer recommendations for film soundtracks, exploring all the pieces, compositions, and songs that contribute to a movie or TV series. Occasionally, we also delve into more explanatory articles, such as the one we did on the difference between diegetic and non-diegetic music.