Bridge of Spies (Steven Spielberg, 2015)
I wish I'd written this review yesterday, since now I hardly remember anything I wanted to say about it. But, the gist is, it's a movie (based on a tru story) about an American lawyer in the 1970s, during the Cold War, who gets tasked with defending a man accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union. There's more to it than that, it escalates, but that's the setup.
All-in-all it was a very good film. The camerawork was fine, and I actually really liked the dull tones and seemingly light bloom sort of filter imposed over most of the movie, especially with the sort of shots Spielberg used to keep windows exposed, with a fuzzy aura. That sentence was a fucking trainwreck.
Anyway, very good movie. Mark Rylance was great and I loved his moments on-screen, and Tom Hanks cannot be overrated as an actor. Goddamn, that man. He does such a great job imbuing his characters with enough tics and mannerisms naturally that they feel more like real people than any other actor.
Time Lapse (Bradley D. King, 2014)
Found this and several other movies I'll probably end up watching on a list of low budget films with interesting concepts. This one is the story of (and you find all this out in the first 10 minutes, so I don't consider it spoily) three people living together (an artist, his girlfriend and their friend) that discover a camera in the house across from theirs that's been taking pictures through their window for at least a month, ever single day at 8PM. What's strange is that the camera seems to be taking pictures...of the next day. Hijinks ensue!
Finding out what exactly leads up to each picture can be obvious, heart-poundingly intense or a delayed "...ohhhh" moment. Just as exciting is guessing at and finding out what the next picture is going to be. Even then, nothing is quite what it seems.
Seriously, despite some questionable acting at times and pretty standard cinematography, the concept and story is what makes this one so exciting. That is, at least for me—my standards are presumably different (and possibly lower) than others'. That said, it's usually rare for a film to really snag me nowadays, but every time I thought I was getting a bit tired of this film it threw a new curveball and executed the concept excellently.
I don't want to say too much, because not knowing what's coming next is part of what's exciting, but I would recommend this movie to anyone who has two hours and wants to give something new a shot. Personally, I fucking loved it and am going to force my nephew to watch it this weekend.
Circle (Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione, 2015)
On that same list. The setup to this one is that fifty people suddenly come to in a black and red room, and quickly find out that they have to vote (every two minutes) to kill one person. The movie is mostly about the dynamics of this, why people vote for whom, how long certain people last, stuff like that. That's literally all the plot there is for the majority of the movie so I can't get into specifics without spoiling, but it's interesting.
I think that's the only word I can really use for this film. I don't know if I would call it good or bad; it was interesting. I'm feeling sort of ambivalent about it post-watching, but I don't regret it since I was engaged. I dunno.
This one's an easy recommendation. If that premise sounds interesting to you, watch it. If it doesn't, don't.