Climax (2018)

I've seen over a thousand movies. I have never seen a movie as intense as Climax. This is the most deranged, not necessarily scary, movie I have ever seen. And yet, Gaspar Noe's latest is mesmerizing. It is provocative yet watchable It is Step Up in Hell. It is Suspiria on drugs. It is about a dance troupe that is about to go on tour. They have their final rehearsal (in which they totally kill it) and then celebrate. Long story short, someone spikes the sangria with LSD and the second half of the movie is one bad trip. The movie is extremely energetic. The movie is made up of some highly ambitious shots. Not only is there obviously the dance choreography, but the camera movement is also very choreographed. There are many long unbroken takes. I know there are some cuts but many you don't even notice. I just want to be able to talk to someone about this, but I can't in good faith recommend this movie to other people. I watched this by myself and it messed me up.

Atomic Blonde (2017)

I think overall the plot is convoluted, but there are three really good things worth pointing out. One is the use of music. There is a great use of 80s Cold War-era music. Diegetic sound is music incorporated within the scenes in a practical way, and there's lots of it.  The second thing is the movie's use of color. All the action scenes look very stylish and bloody. Some of the fight scenes are actually quite funny because they're a little more realistic in that human beings don't have unlimited stamina. And third, I really love the clever use of reflections. The mirrors are placed perfectly in the scene to reflect different angles of the action. Interesting framing.