Mike Goes To Movies

Pierrot le Fou (1965) TLDR: Despite being a 'classic' and perhaps one of the quintessential European New Wave films, Godard's Pierrot le Fou is the antithesis to today's contemporary mainstream movie-going experience. It is an entertainingly goofy affair yet also baffling and often indecipherable. It is both an homage and also a commentary on the medium of film, and one that requires a good deal of contemplative afterthought to ponder what exactly it is you've just watched... I will admit that Pierrot is the first film by the legendary Jean-Luc Godard that I have seen. While I knew his status as an auteur and as one of the best of his craft, I didn't quite know his 'style' going into this film. As anyone who has seen some of Godard's will know, within twenty minutes or so, I was taken for quite the turn - I quickly felt like I was part of Ferdinand and Marianne's chaotic joy ride through the European countryside filled with romance, crime, non-se...

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) DISCLAIMER - FULL SPOILERS AHEAD - do not read on if you have yet to see the film and plan on doing so Damn, did that ending pack a punch! I am just going to go out and say that had that ending not unfolded in the way that it does, the film likely would not have worked for me. Like all of Tarantino's films the hype train leading up to Once Upon a Time's release was over the moon, no less this time because it the director's 'so-called' penultimate film. Unlike many of his previous outings however One Upon a Time is less about the plot and more about an overarching feeling, sentiment, or nostalgia of the bygone era it pays tribute to. Tarantino, as many of us know, is a walking, breathing encyclopedia of pop culture history and in this film he willfully unleashes his love for all things Hollywood onto us, the audience. The kicker here is that, as the public learned early on, he bases this film around the true and infamously...