CinemaShafiq

  Steve Jobs is hands down one of the greatest film of all time; about a selfish visionary man who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals; and history proved that he's right. Great af screenplay. This film made me wanna drop everything right now and go out to get the latest iPhone. 8/10

  A well-crafted, well-performed, and well- directed film. Another entry of a good landmark film for local cinema. Namron and Amerul Affendi brought their masterclass performance in this film, and this duo cannot be anymore better.  The film felt like a well-directed stage play, geared by strong script and performances, with some bits of satire/dark humor throughout on love, relationship and social criticism. I like that some of the satirical or dark humor bits felt like something out of a Coen brothers' film. The 4 years wait for the film to be released is worth it, it's like savoring a damn good wine and Mencari Rahmat is probably the best local film to come out this year, and definitely one of the best to come out in recent years. 7/10 

  I am glad that I have finally watched this film after holding it on my to-watch-list for so long. A good directing debut from Aaron Sorkin and while I was watching it I can't help but feeling that it was like a blend of Gone Girl (cinematography and vibes), The Wolf of Wall Street (a biopic film of a hustler narrated from start to finish) and Casino (a narrated film on gambling and card games); and I meant this in a good way. I think this was Jessica Chastain's best performance so far, she played the character very well and tbh her physical attractiveness add a lot to the role. 8/10 

  A classic film back in 1967 which was a fresh, rebellious and raunchy; marking the debut of one of great filmmakers who'll propel Hollywood out of its classic era.  This film was also the debut of Harvey Keitel An examination on toxic masculinity as well as criticism on religion hypocrisy, this debut by Martin Scorsese might unable to rival his latter works, but it was still a good picture, especially in the context of late 60s. 6/10

Finally got around to watch this, and I gotta say it was much better than I expected. A good coming of age/teen comedy film with a lot of realistic elements and heatwarming on its core. I can relate a lot to what Lady Bird was going through even though I'm a guy and this film also unexpectedly was pulling my heartstrings at times. Greta Gerwig is definitely one of the fresh talented filmmaker for our generation and I'm looking forward for Little Women next. 7/10 

  I am going on a daily marathon of Martin Scorsese's films, and I would say that this film showed just how versatile Scorsese is. From releasing a mafia story in 1990, to thriller in 1991, then to a good 1800s New York romance drama in 1993. The Age of Innocence felt like it's one of the classic 1920s-50s Hollywood films that was set in the pre-war or 1800s America, and the performances of Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer added strongly to this effect. It's hard to believe that this film was released in 1993 when the settings, costumes and prop were all nicely polished and set as in the 1800s. This film also showed just how powerful Daniel Day-Lewis' acting is and just how great and a versatile actor he is. I watched this film after watching Gangs of New York, and it's hard for me to believe that the brutal racist gangster in Gangs is the same actor that portrayed this calm and composed soft-speaking gentleman in Age of Innocence. This is definitely one of Sc

  A very good feel good film. It has been such a long time since a film gave me such good vibes and made me happy after watching it. Also my mouth was watering seeing Jon Favreau sizzling, sautéing, and frying stuffs in the kitchen. And now I'm curious on how a cubano tastes like. That little unexpected cameo was also fun. 8/10

The first film by Martin Scorsese that showed Hollywood his entrance for him to become one of America's best film directors. Also an early entrance for Robert de Niro and Harvey Keitel in their career. 46 years later, they were reunited in Scorcese's The Irishman. It was fun watching them back in the days when they just got started. Also in this film, Keitel liked girls with poking nipples idk 8/10 

  A masterpiece by Bong Joon-Ho. He brilliantly crafted a thriller/drama film that has some dark comedy bits and most importantly a deep social satire at its core.  The social commentary was a reality check and gut-wrenching; and is very relevant for 2019. Well-casted and visually beautiful with brilliant cinematography that brought its smart screenplay to life. Definitely one of my top 5 films of 2019, and one of top films of the decade. 9/10

A haunting and intense recount of the Chernobyl incident in 1986. Craig Mazin successfully made a grim, haunting, suspenseful recollection of the incident based on the actual facts and persons involved. Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgaard and Emily Watson's acting were excellent in portraying conflicted important personas in the 80s Soviet. There were comments criticising that the one bothering thing about the series was that the fact that all the casts were using English, and not Russian, but to me, that didn't even matter as biopics not using the original language is pretty common and the series actings, story and other technical aspects was too damn good to consider such small issue. The music, composed by the brilliant Hildur Gudnadottir and the costume department, covering makeups and attires of the casts add to the haunting elements of Chernobyl, and Craig Mazin got the environment of the 80s Soviets perfectly, even to the tiniest details such as the color of th

As a movie lover as well as someone who is really invested in Malaysia's political scene, I think the existence of this film itself is an accomplishment. The story of 9 May 2018 indeed, should be made into a film. With that being said, this film was good, but it could've been better. The six-story narrative may need to be revised or cut to less than six, and it can be felt that this film was rushed as the script itself felt like assemble of events happening in Malaysia, before and during the GE14.  I am a lover of historical and biography films, but it irks me a bit when a film that had a potential to be great turnt out to be only subpar, especially coming from Nik Amir Mustapha (whom directed KIL , a local film that I really love) and Saw Teong Hin (who directed Puteri Gunung Ledang ).  The story(ies?) were messy and the overall production of this film just felt rushed. They should've take their time to develop and produce this movie, Pakatan Harapan is going to

This whole movie is basically just Jared Leto enjoying his weird affection to the Japanese culture, this time; a white yakuza. Maybe he didn't had enough satisfaction playing with Japanese elements in Blade Runner 2049.  There was nothing much about this film, it was about Jared Leto being a former US military, stranded in Japan, and for some weird reason in the universe that this film was taking in - the Yakuza seems to be very welcoming in accepting a gaijin , a white one especially, being accepted into the family. Sure, to be honest, the promise of a white guy being a part of the Yakuza is actually interesting, and there were plenty of materials already made on this premise.  However, what we got is one long movie, which drags and didn't really deliver a good story about that and what was more annoying is that there seems to be illogical "white saviour" moments sprinkled in this movie. It felt like Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai . That fi

Wow Dennis. I watched this just to know about Dennis Villeneuve's earlier works before he became a big name in Hollywood today, so I was not expecting much from Incendies.  From the start, I think the film was shot beautifully and it was a good biography-like story of a strong woman. Little did I realise that actually this film was more intense and disturbing than a mere war survivor's story.  The ending was brilliant but disturbing as hell. Though one can argue that Incendies aim is to show the tragedy that war brings upon men, but Incendies still felt a bit messy, draggy and too melodramatic at times.  A recommended film if you want to watch a beautifully-shot film with a fresh and unexpected narrative. 8/10