Like candy cigarettes: a fun idea but very old fashioned.
The gimmick of having (practically) zero dialog because the protagonist is voiceless starts out as cute but finishes as annoying because there are moments when it would be ridiculous not to say something yet no one does so it is.
Also, Woo apparently is stuck in the 80s because the real hero of this film is the wife who's relegated to the background and not the macho vigilante who takes her for granted and treats her like shit.
Like The Illustrated Bible when I was a kid: the pictures were cool but the story was meh.
As with many graphic novels made into movies, they keep changing the goal plots but, don't worry, the moral message is there throughout.
Which is too bad, because the animation style was original and deserves to be seen.
Like live octopus soup, there was too much I couldn't swallow for me to really enjoy this.
The science of a shark living in a freshwater river capable of having babies without mating and evolving into a new species in a couple years was so bad I had the runs as if I'd drunk from the Seine. That said, I did enjoy the views of Paris, and the ending FAR exceeded my expectations.
So, I'm up for a sequel is what I'm saying.
Like watching a tennis game of things I hate: sports movie -- relationship drama --sports movie -- relationship drama --sports movie -- relationship drama --sports movie -- relationship drama --sports movie -- relationship drama --sports movie -- relationship drama...
All capped off with a ridiculous ending (no spoilers, but the music was hilarious!)
The actors were all hot and amazing, but the rest was giving made-for-ESPN Nickelodeon.
What Jennifer did was not enough for me.
This true crime documentary feels incomplete because they don't spend enough time at the end discussing the other people involved in this story, and it feels a little light, as we've seen this kind of story before. I didn't see what makes this so noteworthy that it needs to be a Netflix special and not an episode of Forensic Files.
Like the second time a magician cuts their assistant in half: it's a bloody good watch but it's not the first time you sawed it.
This reiteration of Knives Out is very entertaining and would've been as good as the first if it were the first.
(Bonus points for the overt takedown of the world's stupidest 'genius'.)
Ma is not so much a horror film as it is a crime scene, because this is where a nice idea is brutally massacred by sloppy writing and torn to shreds by lazy directing. And then they butcher the careers of Octavia Spencer, Juliette Lewis, and Allison Janney!? Films like this are the real threat to cinema because they make Netflix originals look good.
Like gravedigging, you have to dig deep if you want to get the payoff.
Alex Garland's film about the abuse of women succeeds thanks to its rich tapestry of jarring images. While fans of traditional horror may feel disappointed by its lack of jump scares, those who appreciate the more cerebral psychology of neo-horror (à la Hereditary) will find what they are looking for here.
The film is largely a success thanks to its strong cast and rampant symbolism, though Garland's choice to focus more on the women as victims rather than the titular men as aggressors means the movie misses its mark when it comes to demanding receipts.
My interpretation of the symbolism:
:rotating_light::construction::octagonal_sign::warning:MAJOR SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT:warning::octagonal_sign::construction::rotating_light:
The film, obviously, is on a mission to portray women (or at least one woman) as a victim to the male gender. That the director wants to paint all men with this broad stroke is evident in the choice to have the same actor (Rory Kinnear) play all of the aggressors, saying, in essence, that deep down all men are the same man: a being that's driven to hurt women.
Of course, her abusive husband, James, isn’t played by Rory Kinnear. Does this mean he’s somehow different than the other men who appear later in the film? Absolutely not, and proof of that is Jame’s injuries. After he falls / jumps from the building, we see that a gate post splits his right arm from his elbow to his hand, and that his left ankle is broken. Later on in the film, all of the men in the town who besiege Harper are shown to share these exact same injuries, illustrating that they are the same man as the abusive estranged husband.
This point is also reinforced by the presence of 'the naked man'. 'The naked man' is the personification of "The Green Man" (who is also symbolized in the stone carving on the church altar). According to Wikipedia, “The Green Man is a legendary being primarily interpreted as a symbol of rebirth, representing the cycle of new growth that occurs every spring,” which indicates that, as violence breeds violence, the cycle of violent men will continue with no end in sight. This is also what’s meant by the endless cycle of men birthing men that we witness in the film’s climax.
A quick glance at the film’s characters shows us several types of abusers that exist in society.
First, her husband, who starts off emotionally abusing his wife -- “If you leave me, I’ll kill myself” -- before graduating to physical abuse.
Then there’s Geoffrey, the man who rents her the mansion. He represents the “nice guy” who imposes his generosity on women and, when he’s later rebuffed, hurls insults at the women who aren’t interested in him.
The priest represents the patriarchy of religion and the structure put in place to perpetuate male domination and abuse.
Samuel is the young man 'frat bro' who feels he’s entitled to his ‘bit of fun’ and rebukes women who dare refuse him what he considers to be his due.
The police officer represents authority because, when he arrives at Harper’s rental property the night of the home invasion, he stands in her front yard yet neither says nor does anything. He’s as useless and impotent as the police and other authorities women might turn to when they seek assistance.
All of this is not to say that Jessie doesn’t have her allies. There is her best friend Riley (Gayle Rankin) who provides moral support throughout the film, and the kind policewoman who speaks with Harper when the police initially arrest the naked man. Garland’s point here is that the best place for a woman to get the support and assistance she needs is with other women.
This concept is driven home by the second figure etched into the altar (on the opposite face of The Green Man), that of the sheela na gig. The sheela na gig is a carving of a woman with an exaggerated vulva and is used to symbolize fertility and protection against evil.
That’s a brief rundown of the symbolism in Men, and also serves to illustrate what I appreciate about the film: it’s not because it’s horror that I have to turn off my brain. [/spoiler]
Like a big mouth putting his foot in it, this didn't know when to shut up.
The first Songbirds and Snakes movie is better than what I remember of the Hunger Games, but then they tack on another half movie at the end and it all unraveled for me.
I was 6 stars deep through the second half of this Cornholeanus Snow origin story, but then realized there was a third half coming and I had to witness the pacing and story-telling get sacrificed on the altar of setting up a sequel.
Plus, Rachel Zegler is an amazing young woman, but her excess of talent in everything she takes on does not justify turning the movie into a near-musical for her... Just sayin'.
Like a part-time cop with the blues, this movie has a lot of down time.
This remake of the every 1980s thriller starts off with a bang -- which is the absolute bare minimum -- and then degenerates into the cliché depressed cop trying to catch the killer (whose motivation for perpetrating the big intro is basically ignored throughout the rest of the movie) despite her inner demons and constant challenges from internal authorities.
There's a tiny bit of action and zero suspense but lots of brooding, if that's what you want in a thriller.
A neo-horror flick about how the criminally aggressive US health care system is hell bent on crushing the working class out of existence after stealing all their money, and an evil God that will do everything in his power to prevent you from saving your daughter's life on your own unless you get on your knees and beg. Scary shit.
Like an NFT, this looked good but I wasn't invested in it.
Let's face it, if this was Andy's favorite movie, has questionable taste in movies.
Like a bad sermon, The 15:17 to Paris is boring, pointless and irredeemable. The actions of the three Americans who sextuple handedly thwarted a terrorist attack in a train between Amsterdam and Paris deserve more than this slapdash travelogue carelessly thrown together by Clint Eastwood. Clint (who once called me a 'pussy'*) dishonours these men's bravery with a surprising and uncharacteristically amateurish production. The best way to pay tribute to these extraordinary heroes is not this film.
*In an August 4, 2016 interview with Esquire magazine, Eastwood stated, "(S)ecretly everybody’s getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That’s the kiss-ass generation we’re in right now. We’re really in a pussy generation. Everybody’s walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren’t called racist."
Like inhaling helium: funny and left me feeling unexpectedly buoyant.
Nothing like a cutting satire that's this sharp.
(And I'm not saying that just because the central character reminded me a lot of myself :sweat_smile:)
Like second tries: just because it's better than the first one doesn't mean it's good.
It's pleasant enough watching Taissa Farmiga avoid the pitfalls that ruined the original, but that doesn't make this sequel any more original.
Like me and a pizza caught in 4K, Millennium Mambo is an unhealthy relationship filmed very well.
Or maybe it's like a broken down Corvette: it doesn't go anywhere but it's fun to get inside and sit for awhile.
Or maybe it's like a party at your friend's: you feel so comfortable and at home that you doze off towards the end.
This story of a beautiful young Taiwanese woman and her troubled relationships has little to say and none of it new, yet is directed so well that you may forget to notice.
I used to be an unconditional fan of found footage. After The Gallows, I have a butt-load of conditions.
I liked Us, I liked Us a lot. Sadly, when you compare Us to others, you may feel those that came before Us were better than Us, but don't think that makes Us any less valid. Because after you leave Us, and you will leave Us, you'll think about Us often, and remember Us fondly.
After the two 10-year-olds near me stopped using their phones when I asked and left the movie 5 minutes later, there was nothing left to keep me awake.
I have the impression The Crimes of Grisenwald is like a cashier stripper: some interesting visuals but far too much talking to be exciting.
If any of you were able to avoid napping in this film, please leave a comment and let me know if it's worth giving another shot.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is like a private school senior: neither as funny nor as exciting nor as interesting as it thinks it is.
BlacKkKlansman is an undercover film, because beneath its brilliant sheet of light-hearted biopic lurks a dark satire of racism, all lives matter and Trumpism. It will sneak up on you with its dated 70's feel and then grab you with its arresting pertinence to contemporary issues. Watch this film or be doomed to repeat it.
BlacKkKlansman is so good that I forgot it was a Spike Lee film. More seriously, it even outshines 2006's Inside Man and the closing newsreel sequence literally had me sobbing in the cinema (my over-the-top emotional responses are just one of the many reasons I always sit in the front row). Not only one of the best films of the year, this is clearly the most important film of the year.
Like lego toilet paper, Old is pretty clunky and rubbed me all the wrong ways.
From the point of view of someone who probably likes M. Night Shyamalan a tad more than most people, I find Old to be one of his weakest efforts.
The predictable script (surprisingly so, for Shyamalan) relies too heavily on the graphic novel (I really, really hope having characters state their names and jobs outright wasn't a device he thought of himself), looks cheap and, tbh, is poorly directed. Shyamalan's stubborn refusal to show us any of the action (try too hard for a PG-13 much?) ends up being more annoying than intriguing.
This combined with some dubious acting in lead roles (not Thomasin McKenzie, Alex Wolff, Abby Lee Kershaw, or Rufus Sewell who all turn in strong performances) make Old weak, fragile, and tired.
An immigrant child in a new school battling hormones and her mother's Senegalese traditions tries so hard to fit in she breaks.
Cuties / Mignonnes is everything but cute. It's rough, hard, brutal, tragic and very real. Director Maïmouna Doucouré paints the gut wrenching portrait of the young lady and the clique she's dying to enter with sensitivity, soul and a touch of magical realism that mark the reader like a dark tattoo.
Amy is a complex character (terrifically written by Doucouré and played to a T by Fathia Youssouf) because in the same instant she elicits our sympathy, our anger and our disgust. She makes all the wrong decisions for all the right reasons and because for an 11-year-old on the threshold of puberty, there is only right now and desires that blind them from seeing any consequences of their actions.
As for the ridiculous controversy launched by those who haven't seen the film and fueled by blind ignorance: I find it interesting that people will criticize a female woman of color for directing a film based on her personal experiences, whereas when Woody Allen makes a film about young women throwing themselves at older men, he's hailed as a genius.
Shame on those who shame someone for trying to tell their story. Cinema is meant to be a stage for sharing, not an arena for executing artists we judge despite knowing nothing about them or their art.
Missed the chance to call it A Star is Porn.
Who knew that 'misery' was a genre?
I wish this film hadn't been so well made. If it'd been less well made, I might not have taken it so hard.
Capernaum is a badly titled film about Zain, a 12-year-old Syrian immigrant growing up in the slums of Beirut. His parents love him... to bring home money and food but other then that they couldn't really care less for him or his indiscriminate number of brothers and sisters. Zain doesn't go to school, works full time at a convenience 'store' and his favourite sister is given away to be married at 11 years old. And then his life gets tough.
The film has its shortcomings. The ending feels like it was forgotten about until the money was nearly out and then they had to wrap everything up during their lunch hour. Or the court case which is used as a framing device and feels very gimmicky (and is fortunately not dwelt upon).
But what works, works too well. There is a devastating sense of realism that comes through thanks to the directing and to the cast, many of whom are amateurs plucked from the streets to play the roles of their lives. Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) was a Syrian immigrant, Kawsar Al Haddad (his mother in the film) was an illegal immigrant, the girl who played his sister (Haita 'Cedra' Izzam) was discovered selling chewing gum on the streets of Beirut, the real life parents of the baby (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole) with whom Zain bonds in the movie were illegals and were deported for a time during the filming...
There is enough reality here to choke you, or at least choke you up.
Capernaum is an experience so poignant it will pierce your heart, steal your breath, and wet your eyes with truth. It is a film you will probably love but certainly not like.
Ford v Ferrari is an expensive, finely tuned machine that races out of the starting block and kicks into high gear until the finish.
Matt Damon is in peak form and Christian Bale keeps up the pace in this fascinating tale of the 1966 Le Mans race. Trust me, the +2-hour run time flies by so fast you won't see it pass.
Yes, I could've done without the grease monkey poetry, but any film that can stoke my interest in car racing of all things has got to be well put together.
(And, as always, go in as blind as you can and see it on the biggest screen possible.)
Very atmospheric. Overly atmospheric. So atmospheric you could choke a giraffe with all the bloody atmosphere. Sadly, atmosphere is the only thing this film has, and that's barely enough to carry it for 30 minutes, let alone the well over two hours this film subjects us to.
You could put Jodie Foster, Sofia Boutella, Jenny Slate and Zachary Quinto in an empty room for 2 hours doing nothing and I would watch it. Oh, wait...
But seriously, Hotel Artemis isn't a bad film though it tries very hard to be. The actors and decor are sublime and the directing is on point. Sadly, the film suffers from a lack of a plot. Sure, there are minor story arcs that are all wrapped up nicely by the end of the film, but there is no main storyline with a villain to defeat and challenges to overcome. The closest we get is Jeff Goldblum, but he's only on screen long enough to make us wonder why he's getting top billing for a cameo.
Hotel Artemis could've been worse if it had tried, but it also could've been so much better.
Like a battery powered toy robot, it's noisy, flashy and doesn't stand still, but it just runs along its pre-programmed track until it ends predictably.
Sadly, however, this doesn't just run out of juice, it makes a hysterically bad exit...
Don't believe the pack mentality concerning The Snowman. This Cult of Rotten Tomatoes and piling on after one bad review is a tad ridiculous, especially concerning solid films like this one. For example, I liked the filming style here and found the cinematography often gorgeous.
On the other hand, the story was like a child who tries too hard to be clever, and watching Michael Fassbender act is like making love to someone who's always looking in the mirror when he fucks because he's more interested in his own image than your pleasure. On top of that, what was up with Val Kilmer's voice that they had to dub all of his scenes? Whatever the reason, the Christian Bale Batman voice they chose was extremely distracting...
Bottom line: don't believe everything you read. Like with every other movie, see it and judge it for yourself. Don't let other people tell you what you think!
