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Watched on February 20th, 2025

There's always one particular movie that you're so eager to see; the anticipation is killing you, and you hope it will just be exactly like you're expecting or even exceed it. That's what The Brutalist is to me, it takes a lot for one to digest the movie, let alone finish it. The shot of an upside-down Statue of Liberty, along with one of last year's best musical scores plays with it is the very first thing that you want to see and won't forget. That scene also established the very essence of the story, it's about the idea of the American Dream for Immigrants without knowing how destructive it can be. Despite many people saying that this is a gigantic movie due to its 215-minute runtime, it's actually pretty straightforward in telling the story it wants to deliver.

László Toth represents immigrants who are seeking freedom and new opportunities to rebuild their lives postwar in a foreign land. Harrison Lee Van Buren represents the foreign land itself, which in this case is America and its capitalistic system, which treats foreigners as mere beggars, especially someone as genius and artistic as Toth. Sometimes they exploit the only thing these immigrants could offer for their own benefit; Van Buren can only realize the significance of Toth's work to him after it's mentioned in a magazine. He's surely a rich man, but he couldn't care less about architecture, much less of its artistic value.

There are a lot of movies on my watchlist that need attention, but I honestly can't wait to see The Brutalist again immediately, so I have to sacrifice them. The movie's structure itself is rather similar to grandiose Brutalist architecture, Brady and his crew laid out the foundation while the wonderful cast are the pillars that make it stand solid and grand. To quote the man himself: "Is there a better description of a cube than that of its construction?".

Watched on February 19th, 2025

I honestly feel bad for Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) that Marvel can't trust him to carry out his first solo flick and has to bring a lot of new characters to the table. Brave New World showed what the MCU has been suffering from post Endgame which is too many fresh faces and new stories introduced without any significant connection with each other. I know the whole thing is a multiverse now but they seriously need to tie up all the loose ends. I'm not particularly familiar with Thaddeus Ross/Red Hulk and as much as I like him in the movie, it would be better to sit him out or rewrite the movie completely since it's known that this movie suffers from rewrite and reshoots. Or Maybe, it would be best to keep his transformation under wraps in the promotions and let audiences experience the spectacle of Harrison Ford turning big and red for the first time on the big screen. There's literally one character's presence that is unnecessary and shoehorned into the script for no reason. This is Sam's movie, and they want to give the spotlight to the said character.

I'll have to admit, though this might sound a bit biased, Captain America: Brave New World is a fun watch. It has a good amount of action scenes that really make me want to rewatch the trilogy; I mean, Captain America always has the best hand-to-hand combat in the franchise. The only problem with it is that, on the surface, the movie really does want to be serious and new while also doesn't give us anything meaningful other than the celestial island thing, which was completely ignored in the last 4 years. At least they should've kept the final showdown more longer, we haven't seen Hulk in action for years.

Watched on January 9th, 2025

The thing I hate about award contention is that they are "treating" movies each year as some sort of competition, whether it's directing, editing, original, etc. To me personally, this kind of thing really takes away the collective experience from people who have watched the movies because each movie gives us a different experience, particularly the best picture category. As much as I don't like to make a list, it's better than to name which one is the best of them all. I only felt that just this time around with all these kinds of movies released, I mean, just look at the best picture nominees which are, to be fair, equally loved and hated (I haven't seen all of them yet). At the end of the day, It's art and it's subjective.

I didn't have any expectations before seeing Anora so you could say that I was shocked when the credits started to roll at the end. Not shocked by which direction the story is going but by how it unfolds and the unpredictable turn of pacing, the silent moment screams much louder than the rest, particularly the ending. I tried to contemplate the ending every day since I watched it for the first time. That's why I was hesitant to write the reviews right on. This movie is exhilarating, along with a bunch of the most exciting characters I've seen this year, and then suddenly throws a haymaker to the gut and leaves you with a profound impact that lingers. I haven't had a pleasant laugh like this in a while, and yes, I don't watch many comedies; the thing is that Anora is genuinely funny.