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Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Really good food for thought
Despite there being a really obvious explanation and meaning to this movie, which I failed to get until reading other reviews I managed to find my own too. That's what I love about this film it leaves you with a lot to think about. First It transfixes you in many ways, acting and dialogue that leaves you hanging on every word, mystery and intrigue and perhaps most relevantly by drawing the male gaze. The most praiseworthy thing is it keeps you transfixed after it ends.
I think the dream concept and the idea that no one night defines a lifetime were quite sweet. You can dream while you're awake and we often do do. We become consumed by emotion and the bright colours in the present moment and everything in our peripheral vision is drowned out. What's in front of us can seem all we want but upon waking up the whole picture floods back in and mistakes become clear. Despite Alice's indiscretion once the dream was over it became apparent thats all it was, a waking dream and a regretful one. I found the situation with the cult quite the same, on the surface it was so very elegant and organised in the moment or the dream. In reality they were a bunch of horny old men using prostitutes, Bill's friend had him followed who was in the end the oposite of menacing, and Bill's wife placed the mask on the bed not them as it first appeared to me in the first shot. In the moment the full picture isn't clear and with wide eyes we think we see everything but our eyes are also closed. Without diving deeper its a sweet metaphor for understanding and forgiveness between lovers, and a reminder we are human and fallible. But also on a deeper level every encounter is a man's fantasy and also his fear and that's also such clever writing.
Road House (2024)
Typical Hollywood Lackluster, has its moments
What I liked: In the beginning and in certain places this film was very entertaining. It had a nonchalant bizarre kind of humour and acting but it does lose it. Connor Mcgregor surprised me and had a very cheeky and just generally silly role that was just really amusing to watch. Some of the early fights were fun too.
What I didnt like: The movie would've been fine contained in more simplicity, goings on in the Roadhouse and other more confined story. It just tries too hard to become some big action epic which it rushes to become and at the same time slows itself way down and hobbles the story because of the drastic transition. For what the movie is it really lacked action outside the beginning and end like a sandwich with one piece of cheese in the middle. The beginning builds the story up and has some cool fights and funny moments, then it spends most the film stuck in the transition to some intended action flick with vehicular fighting, explosions and murder. What's more shocking is that the simple bar fights in the beginning were the highlight of all the action.
It's a very frustrating thing that Hollywood always has to blow everything up to ridiculous ends. Movies can just exist as what they are and be contained and grounded, we aren't all children and we have a reasonable attention span. I'd like to think so anyway.
Blue Eye Samurai (2023)
Cornered a need in the industry
Adults need cartoons too! Not just silly and crude ones, ones that take themselves seriously! It's done in Japan as a normal practice so why not in western ones. Emphasis on the word adult, let's have more content aimed at 18 plus audiences and stop trying to corner all markets.
Despite it hitting those two niches let me sing its praise. It was brutal, jaw dropping and at so many moments thoughtful and heart warming. Characters have a beautiful complexity and are written with such care. Just as with a real person you can't just put a pin in them at a glance and I feel like I really got to know the characters in the show and at so many moments they made me smile, and when they felt I felt. The choreography of the combat was impeccable and scenes had an incredible motion and momentum. You really can't tear your eyes away from the screen. When you throw amazing writing into the mix you've got a recipe for binge watching. I'm so genuinely delighted by this show and I can't say I've seen much that comes so close to what I'd call perfection. It's long too, around 50 minutes an episode for 8 episodes and we're only one villain down... technically.
Oh the villains, THE VILLAINS. I know you aren't meant to like the bad guy but damn. The main villain so well put together and he was mean and downright sadistic, but so cool. Even the side villains were nice and spicy little jalapeños too.
Netflix we need season 2. We wants it, we needs it.
The Fall of the House of Usher (2023)
So very Netflix
Its just so typical of Netflix to make a superficially compelling story that is empty on the inside. It just lacked any real substance, character depth and good script writing.
Everyone was a caricature. Specifically they all felt like caricatures of succession characters that were written for teenagers. There aren't really any scenes where we get to know who a character is they just exist as a vessel for furthering the story which is pretty thin. All the deaths just felt impactless when you don't take time to humanise the characters.
Its hard to get lost in a world that feels really paper thin and colourless. The story was an interesting premise but you can't draw the mona Lisa with crayola pens and expect a good result. I expect low production quality from Netflix now but perhaps they should go for more quality over quantity.
Cobweb (2023)
Confusingly bad second half following strong start
It has be bewildered that so much effort was put into the beginning of the movie only to shoot itself in the foot in the second act. What started out as a tense, creepy and mysterious movie ended with some b movie vibe nonsensical creature feature. Dont get me wrong who doesn't like a good creature feature, but this one made no sense at all. It was a big jump in the script that really didn't work out. One minute you're thinking "is it a ghost, is it a human, hmm" next minute "NO its angry deformed telekinetic spider sister". And if you think that's a big jump you probably won't like the jump from eerie horror to cheesy action movie either.
Talk to Me (2022)
Horror movies... Horrifying again?
I'm so impressed. I haven't been stricken with genuine horror and a deep feeling of dread watching a movie in so long. I am at that point in my life where I thought horror just wasn't going to do it any more, but this movie proved me wrong. Literally reignited my childhood paranormal phobia and made a cat in someones window jump scare me on the walk home. Totally fresh and unique concept with lore that has you hooked and wanting to know more. It's simplicity with no desire to wrap things up nicely or follow a simple horror formula really worked in its favour. Sound design was amazing and so sharp, in the cinema you're gonna flinch. The soundtrack was just so cool too. Just watch this in the cinema if you can please, you're in for a treat.
I am so eager to see where the promise of this director goes.
The Whale (2022)
Eyes glued to the screen
Everyone said the performance was impeccable and that's exactly what I thought myself. I was absolutely captivated and I teared up more than a few times
Everyone also said that the story was badly written and had many offshoots that weren't fully fleshed out, part of me thinks that was the point. Fraisers characters overwhelming optimism helped him find perfection in the most simple seemingly imperfect things. He wanted honesty from his students in their essays and from his daughter in her writing and what we also got from every character intertwined in his story was their own personal honesty in the end, imperfect and messy as it was. Imperfect and messy is life, in our main characters life especially, but he didn't care as long as he did one very important thing right and that's what mattered to him.
Pusher II (2004)
Gripping feeling of realism and emotionally complex
What I really admire about these movies is their ability to write such despicable characters, yet with so much emotional complexity that it is hard to truly hate them. Well when I say that I'm really only talking about the leads, which was especially the case with Tonny and less so with Frank (Pusher). It looks so bleak for Tonny and almost impossible to break his cycle of violence. His relationship with his father continues the theme of the negative cycle, outcasting his first son while idolising his younger son who is undoubtedly being raised very similarly, with a mother who's a prostitute and a father who's a cold criminal. The father somehow cannot understand how his first born could've turned out the way he did, yet expects better from his younger. The journey here is Tonny coming to realise that for something to change he must do better for his own child, and I was rooting for him all the way.
Nope (2022)
So good, so bad. Destroyed itself with silliness
What it did well it did amazingly, what it did bad just ruined what could've otherwise been something spectacular. I never thought a horror movie about aliens could creep me out, more so a horror where the antagonist is just a UFO with no face to face humanoid style contact. Some of it was creative on a new level when a writer reinvents how a monster behaves on screen to the effect that it breathes new life into a subgenre, that's what the good parts of the film did for me. Aliens in horror are all but dead at present so it's an even bigger feat. In This could've been such an effective horror but for lack of a better word it was just silly and it's sad to see the potential go to waste.
Euphoria: All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name (2022)
Seriously suffered with pacing and overindulgence
You can't get the audience riled up with serious tension in Fez's story and keep skipping back and fourth to it a minute at a time. Everything else happening in the episode, the play, rues epiphany, Nate, Maddy, was just completely overshadowed. It took 2 episodes to hash out what happened and thats just cheap storytelling with unnecessary dragged out cliffhangers.
Also euphoria is a cheesy show I know that but this episode went overboard.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
They Never Learn
I went in with high expectations, Texas Chainsaw being my favourite slasher franchises. I just thought they could've learned from their mistakes this time round and taken all the negatives from the flops and done without them, the posetives from the older installments and worked with them but no. Surely as a director of a movie with many past installments you sit and you do your research and learn what works and what doesn't. Seems like the same mistakes are just being repeated every time. The entire movie was just empty, pointless and lacked the grit and fear factor texas chainsaw was founded on.
Netflix if you don't intend to take a movie seriously try not to create it maybe? We have enough lazy movies that nobody watches a second time round already.
Hot Summer Nights (2017)
A romanticized Summer compilation with some depth
Enjoyable coming of age/crime flick probably most suited to a younger audience. The story telling was lazy with lots of jump cuts, kind of like a highlight reel of the ups and downs of Danny's summer. You really don't see any relationships develop or get to know any characters in depth. The whole movie is more like a romanticized compilation showing only start and the end of the journey with no middle. That said it started out very superficial and over the top but ended surprisingly heavy and went against a few of my expectations.
Uncut Gems (2019)
I forgot this was Adam Sandler
This movie was an intense roller coaster that had me gripped throughout. From nail biting agony to moments of joy since I was dying to actually see him succeed. The entire movie carried this intense energy that had me psyched up, including sandler himself who played the role so well and with such charisma. Despite the nature of the ending it really made me smile and I found it quite hopeful, like anything is possible if you believe it
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
A homage to perhaps the most stylish era of cinema
Left this movie with my jaw hanging. I don't quite know where I rank this movie among Tarrantino's best and I don't feel the urge to rank it. It was a film all of its own that told a fantastic love story with cinema in the most stylish era of cinema and turmoil. As always the dialogue was outstanding and I think he brought out the very best his cast could offer. What I think I loved the most is that the movie wasn't just one thing, there were so many transitions to the pace and style. Ultraviolence, great storytelling, and taught moments that glue you to your seat. It has so much rewatch value and I already want to watch it again.
Climax (2018)
Mind blowing cinematography with a cult feel
This movie was an outstanding feat to begin with, with most actors having no prior experience and the brilliance of the cinematography. There was a 42 minute take I believe, no jump cuts just switching up who the camera followed taking you along for an excellent ride. And the whole film was done in such a short timeframe.
I liked the realism. While not the biggest fan of Vice I found the portrayal of what it's like to do psychedelic drugs in a bad setting quite on point and I think they were the right choice to make a film like this. Of course there is some extremity here and there baring in mind this was based off a true story where nothing really happened, but just the right amount. Excellent shock value and not nearly over the top.
I highly recommend this film. Not for the uptight kind though
A Star Is Born (2018)
Haunting performance for anyone
This movie is was all it was made out to be, a big budget knock out with 2 great main actors and a simple but fantastic story anyone can follow, but not an easy ride by any measure. Both actors were inspiring and charismatic, yet so rough around the edges. The movie was the perfect combination of grit and easy viewing, and everything that lead up to the conclusion had me invested in the two as a couple, which is perfect when things get serious.
Hereditary (2018)
Complex and Disturbing, but unmissable.
I saw this movie on the UK premiere and it definitely left a lasting effect of pure dread, which is always great and elusive for horror nowadays. It's somewhere of a cross between a gut wretching family drama and a slow burning horror. It takes its time throughout taking you on a slow ride as you watch this family go through a series of horrid events and dig an equally horrid past, all the while tension between everyone slowly building up. Nobody is at rest, nobody is safe. The casting of this movie was spot on and the part of the unhinged mother and estranged family creates the perfect distancing give us the discomfort that everyone is together yet alone. The camera work did an astounding job of creating a fresh, tense kind of horror that was never put to rest with a jump scare and as a viewer you're never at ease, even after learning not to expect sudden scares. Towards the end the tension erupts and kind of transforms into full-on horror and leads us to a shock ending that ties the movie under a bow and brings together a number of clever hints and foreshadowings, the mood also totally shifts. As a movie I found this one very complex with the mix between drama and the total mood shift towards the ending, not to say it didn't pay off. I think Hereditary is just of the border of mainstream leading towards niche, and it tell anyone to give it a try.
The Walking Dead (2010)
The one stop show for zombie fans that totally shot itself in the foot
Walking dead was the first smash hit zombie TV show, and justifiably so. Used to be you only got your zombie fix in the occasional movie, so it was great. A good small cast of well acted characters and every epsiode in a purposeful direction. Nowadays everything that made the show great is dialuted into episodes that take you nowhere, consisting of filler in the form of "emotional" flashbacks from characters we no longer feel for as the scope of the cast has gone too far. Characters dropping like flies, mostly the good ones people were still invested in. And alas, zombies aren't even a big part of the plot anymore. Stick to the reason people watch AMC, cause it's not for the characters anymore. You killed off all the best ones, and the rest are leaving the show.