Tag / 1987

by Jaime Rebanal

Wings of Desire – Review

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A good amount of my own life had been spent under the care of my devout Roman Catholic grandmother. When I finally entered high school, I had begun to move away from that lifestyle. As I moved away from that lifestyle I had only found myself growing into a less religious person but I never found myself turning into an atheist all the way, rather instead I happen to be an agnostic. Part of me believes that something is watching me performing an everyday activity and is able to read my thoughts. The one thing I ask myself is what do they do with it? I ask myself this rather frequently because I’m always thinking about what happens after I die, and I can’t commit to atheism in that sense. I can’t commit because I feel another presence even when I’m alone. One I wish to speak to, and maybe they had something to say to us, akin to the angels in Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Nekromantik – Review

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Nekromantik is an interesting film to experience, because there’s no doubt that what one is set to experience will either be off-putting to the human eye or fascinating. For the longest while I’ve wanted to see it because I’ve always been drawn forth by transgressive art and Jörg Buttgereit’s work seemed to be a perfect showcase for boundary-pushing content, almost like John Waters. To say that I got what I expected out of Nekromantik is only the very least of what made this experience worthwhile, but how does it all add up? If I’m being perfectly honest, I can see why others wouldn’t find the material especially appealing but at the same time I think it’s worth watching at least once. Yet that having been said, I also struggle even trying to call it “great.” The ideas are enough to sell me in, but something about its own delivery still feels lacking.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Boyfriends and Girlfriends – Review

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It’s a shame that the films of Éric Rohmer are not talked about nearly as much as the likes of Jean-Luc Godard or François Truffaut because his filmography has kept such a great streak of consistency and even at his weakest something so intriguing. There’s always a sense of thoughtfulness to be found within what he covers in his work especially from how he masters the art of a conversation. In yet another one of his “Comedies and Proverbs” (the sixth and final of such), he has already found himself at the hands of some of the vastest his ideals can reach. While not at the heights achieved by Pauline at the Beach what has come by in Boyfriends and Girlfriends is yet another thought piece about the extent to which we value our own relationships under the guise of what could easily have been a standard romantic comedy. But that’s already become so easy to say about Rohmer, considering it’s so hard to describe that feeling of his style leaving its mark in one’s head as Boyfriends and Girlfriends continues to prove.

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by Jaime Rebanal

RoboCop – Review

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When talking about the greatest action films of the 1980’s, doing so without bringing up RoboCop is disgraceful in the highest possible manner. Paul Verhoeven’s Hollywood debut remains not only a staple for iconic 1980’s action films but one of the most intelligent, if in-your-face satires of said era. A film that could easily be dismissed as enjoyable action fare from the period at youth, but oncoming years have only allowed the value of RoboCop to become even clearer than ever. It carries the look of an action movie just the way we love it but what’s lying beneath in where the wonders that form Paul Verhoeven’s body of work have formed clear. Sometime I wish to slap younger me across the face for not being able to see any of this at the time but I have to give it to RoboCop for helping me at the same time with accepting the sight of graphic violence on the screen, so in part it might have helped me in heading as far as I’ve managed to reach.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Near Dark – Review

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In recent years one would recognize Kathryn Bigelow for her more politically-oriented collaborations which have received Academy Awards recognition: those two films being The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. I’ve admittedly put off Near Dark for the longest time because vampire fiction generally never grabbed my interest enough, but eventually I came around to having watched it only to have my expectations blown further away. Near Dark is not only one of the most compelling pieces of contemporary vampire fiction put to the screen, but it works the way many other monster films in the 80’s have done so: all to a truly glorious effect. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

Prince of Darkness – Review

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Yet another one of John Carpenter’s most underappreciated films, but also one of his best experiments as I would say. Prince of Darkness, the second film in Carpenter’s Apocalypse trilogy, (first being The Thing and last being In the Mouth of Madness), was critically reviled upon its initial release but in more recent stature, a more positive response comes by, something which is all the more satisfying. With Prince of Darkness, John Carpenter is free to toy around with his many cinematic obsessions and he lets everything out just as he pleases. Prince of Darkness is not only a film that holds an honour for being Carpenter’s most underappreciated film in my eyes, but also one of his very best films at that. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

Broadcast News – Review

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I have a very hit-or-miss relationship with the films of James L. Brooks (although I admire his television work, notably The Simpsons) but among his own output, the one film that I feel stands out amongst all the rest is none other than Broadcast News, which showcases his writing at some of its very finest and most human. Similarly what we’re also offered is a biting satire of what happens behind what makes the media under the guise a love triangle forming from the three leads, all of whom are nothing less than absolutely charming as they take up the screen, it’s absolutely wonderful where all of this leads to because it breaks away from being your ordinary romantic comedy. Continue reading →