Jasmim Talks Cinema

Jasmim's Choice 2014: Best Film: Winner: Mommy A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Boyhood Clouds of Sils Maria Dear White People Force Majeure Frank Gone Girl Goodbye to Language Inherent Vice It Follows Leviathan Nightcrawler Pride The Duke of Burgundy The Grand Budapest Hotel Whiplash Wild Tales Winter Sleep Best Director: Winners: Xavier Dolan, Mommy; Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel Ana Lily Amirpour, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) Richard Linklater, Boyhood Olivier Assays, Clouds of Sils Maria Justin Simien, Dear White People Mia Hansen-Love, Eden Ruben Östlund, Force Majeure Lenny Abrahamson, Frank David Fincher, Gone Girl Jean-Luc Godard, Goodbye to Language Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice David Robert Mitchell, It Follows Andrey Zvyagintsev, Leviathan Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler Peter Strickland, The Duke of...

Lost in Translation - Finding Familiarity in a Foreign Place  Let's never come here again because it would never be as much fun.   A washed-up movie star. A lonely young woman. Two Americans in Tokyo, Japan. Two people lost in a giant modern concrete jungle. One's in a mid-life crisis. The other is trying to figure out what to do with her life. Both are in a foreign land, surrounded by unfamiliar people and an unfamiliar language. They are alone. Nobody listens to them. What were the chances? In this wonderfully beautiful and touching story of unlikely friendship and romance, Sofia Coppola shows us how foreign places and unfamiliar people can be familiar and help us maturate and figure out ourselves through the story of a young woman and an older man who cross passes in Tokyo, who are both in a moment in life when they are feeling stuck and hopeless, and how they help each other finding themselves in this maze-like city. Sometimes we need to go to an unfamiliar e...

The Virgin Suicides - A Humanistic Look at Teenage Suicide  "What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets."   "Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl."  This exchange between Cecilia, the youngest of the Lisbon Sisters, and her doctor after she fails to commit suicide sets the tone to this poetic and existential reflection on teenagehood, society, and suicide. In The Virgin Suicides , we follow the story of the Lisbon Sisters, the daughters of a conservative family that lives in an American suburb, near Detroit, during the 70's, from the point of view of the boys that fell in love with them. Sofia Coppola has one of the best debut feature films in the history of cinema, brilliantly tackling the issue of teenage suicide in one of the most humane, beautiful, and respectful ways ever done in film. In an era dominated by sensationalism, glorification, and misrepresentation around this issue, i...

Jasmim's Choice 2015: Best Film: Winner: The Lobster Anomalisa Arabian Nights (Volumes 1, 2 and 3) Carol Chevalier Dheepan Ex Machina Mad Max: Fury Road Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Montanha Mountains May Depart Neon Bull Right Now, Wrong Then Son of Saul Tangerine The Diary of a Teenage Girl The Revenant The Witch Victoria 45 Years Best Director: Winner: Yorgos Lanthimos, The Lobster Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, Anomalisa Miguel Gomes, Arabian Nights (Volumes 1, 2 and 3) Todd Haynes, Carol Athina Rachel Tsangari, Chevalier Jacques Audiard, Dheepan Alex Garland, Ex Machina George Miller, Mad Max; Fury Road Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl João Salaviza, Montanha Jia Zhangke, Mountains May Depart Gabriel Mascaro, Neon Bull Hong Sang-soo, Right Now, Wrong Then Lázló Nemes, Son of Saul Sean Baker, Tangerine Hou Hsiao-Hsien, The Assassin Alejandro G. Iñárritu, The Revenant Robert Eggers, The Witch Sebastian Schippe...

Look What I've Got in My Shopping Bag! - The Birth of a New Talent   Don't ever be fooled by the apparent sloppiness of amateur films and never underestimate their capacity of telling a good story. Certainly, don't underestimate this gem of amateur filmmaking. Matthew Reynolds, who directed and wrote this British short, introduces his talent to us with an amazingly energetic, crazy and entertaining story of a young police sergeant who finds himself in the midst of the corrupt world of arms dealing. Keep in mind that this film was made on a zero budget, so don't expect any high-grade sound and visual effects and design. Once you get past that, it's clear that this is the first sign of one of the talents in the cinema world of the near future.  We follow Sergeant Ian Lynch - played by Conor O'Neill - and his story. We are introduced to his story with a jab at the "true story" cliché that we have seen so many times - obviously a reference to Fargo,...

Call Me By Your Name - The Fervour and Fleetingness of First Love  "A  handsome young knight is madly in love with a princess, and she too is in love with him, though she seems not to be entirely aware of it. Despite the friendship that blossoms between them, or perhaps because of that very friendship, the young knight finds himself so humbled and speechless that he is totally unable to bring up the subject of his love. Until one day he asks the princess point-blank: Is it better to speak or to die?”   "Is it better to speak or to die?" - This is the question that Elio - and everyone suffering from the pains of falling in love - asks himself. Speak the truth about our feelings and face the consequences of possible heartbreak, or repress them, never knowing what would have happened if we had revealed them, sparing our hearts of any pain or feeling. In Call Me By Your Name , we follow Elio - played by who I predict will be one of the greatest actors of the near futu...

Jasmim's Choice 2016: Best Film: Winner: Moonlight American Honey Aquarius Arrival Hell or High Water I, Daniel Blake It's Only the End of the World Jackie La La Land Letters from War Manchester by the Sea Paterson Raw Silence The Handmaiden The Love Witch The Salesman Toni Erdmann Your Name 20th Century Women Best Director: Winners: Denis Villeneuve, Arrival; Damien Chazelle, La La Land; Barry Jenkins, Moonlight Andrea Arnold, American Honey Kleber Mendonça Filho, Aquarius Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake Xavier Dolan, It's Only the End of the World Pablo Larraín, Jackie Ivo Ferreira, Letters from War Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals Jim Jarmusch, Paterson Olivier Assayas, Personal Shopper Julia Ducournau, Raw Martin Scorsese, Silence Park Chan-Wook, The Handmaiden Anna Biller, The Love Witch Nicolas Winding Refn, The Neon Demon Asghar Farhadi, The Salesman Maren Ade, Toni Erdmann Best Actor: Winn...

Get Out - Being Black in a White World  "I would have voted for Obama for a third term if I could" - the impression this phrase makes on you can change depending on whether you're black or not. To a white person, this might sound like a progressive statement. To a black person, not so much. This is because there is racism hidden in this statement. That racism is what Get Out is about - the hidden racism in a liberal white-majority society, a society that prides itself on being diverse, yet only cares about the people that contribute to that diversity for a certain objective, a certain image, and not caring about their humanity. Jordan Peele shows us what it feels to be a person of a minor ethnicity in such a society, a liberal white world that may seem friendly on the outside but has a hostile heart at its core. A world meant to maintain the supremacy of a certain group of people but uses a mask of a society that gives power to all the people. Of course, to understa...

Jasmim's Choice 2017: Best Film: Winner: Call Me By Your Name  A Fantastic Woman A Ghost Story Blade Runner 2049 BPM (Beats Per Minute) Dunkirk Foxtrot Get Out God's Own Country Good Time Lady Bird Lady Macbeth Mother! Phantom Thread The Big Sick The Florida Project The Killing of a Sacred Deer The Shape of Water The Square You Were Never Really Here Best Director: Winners: Sebastián Lelio, A Fantastic Woman; Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water David Lowery, A Ghost Story Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049 Robin Campillo, BPM (Beats Per Minute) Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk Agnès Varda and JR, Faces Places Samuel Maoz, Foxtrot Jordan Peele, Get Out Francis Lee, God's Own Country Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird William Oldroyd, Lady Macbeth Andrey Zvyagintsev, Loveless Darren Aronofsky, Mother! Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread Sean Baker, The Florida Project Yorgos Lanthimos, The Killing of a Sacred ...

Jasmim's Choice  I'm announcing that I am going to be publishing my choice for best film, directing, performances, screenplays, and cinematography of every year since 1998, which is the year I was born. I have chosen to begin in this year and not before or after because I wanted to start off with a year that has significant meaning to me. I may publish my choices for previous years, though. Each category will have 15 "nominees" and one "winner" out of those 15. The first year I'll be publishing will be the year of 2017, which is a special year because each category will have 17 "nominees" since there were so many films and performances that I loved so much I didn't feel right leaving them out.  Thank you for following :)

Cléo from 5 to 7 - The Journey of a Woman's Liberation   Mirrors. Inquisitive eyes. Judging faces. The world seen through the eyes of a woman - This could be a possible synopsis of this documentary-esque film. The world judges women's physical appearance much more harshly than men. When we see the face of a woman we notice little imperfections much more quickly than when we see in men's faces, even getting some pleasure out of pointing them out - a wrinkle, a freckle, a mole, any imperfection. Women have one kind of beauty - the beauty of a girl (or young woman). When they get old, at the eyes of society, they lose their beauty. This doesn't happen to men. For them, there are two kinds of beauty - the boy (or younger man) and the man (or older man). When men get older, their beauty transforms, but they are still beautiful to the eyes of the general society. Women don't have this luxury. This makes women be much more critical and unhappy about their looks than m...