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Reviews
The Farewell (2019)
Beautifully Melancholy Comedy About Family, Life, and Culture
The Farewell is phenomenal and one of the best films of 2019.
Awkwafina sheds her usual persona to take on this role and she is truly fantastic. The real standout here, however, is Shuzhen Zhao as Nai Nai. She's funny, down to Earth, and absolutely heartbreaking. It's a brilliant performance from a phenomenal older Chinese actress and I hope she's remembered come award season (same with Awkwafina).
Lulu Wang has written an absolutely beautiful and personal film and has clearly poured her heart out into it. Her dialogue is funny, human, and poetic. Most of the film is in Mandarin, but don't worry. The translations have kept the jokes truly funny and the dramatic moments have retained their weight. It's a pretty bilingual film, so if subtitles worry you, don't worry. It's a great screenplay.
I think this is an extremely accessible film that you can bring the whole family to and I hope it gets a wide release and does well. I can't recommend it enough. I hope it does well financially and gets award recognition. I like to see beautiful, small, personal projects do well and this is a truly great movie.
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Wanted To Like This More Than I Did
This movie succeeds thematically, but ultimately fails dramatically and emotionally. The "point" of this film is a very important one, the cast is wonderful, the cinematography has flair, and the score is phenomenal. There's a lot to like here, but the entire film feels low energy, cold, and distant. I could often tell what the director wanted me to feel, but I rarely felt it. It's occasionally on the nose and a bit young in it's writing. This one definitely felt like a film by a fairly inexperienced filmmaker. I'm a huge supporter of A24 films and I find that they put out truly interesting and innovative work. I will say that this is a risky film about a very important topic and I thank A24 for putting forward.
I'm going to rewatch it when it comes out on streaming and maybe I'll feel different them. As of right now, however, I think this is an extremely unfocused film and somewhat of a long watch.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Has Tim Burton Ever Actually Seen the Musical?!?!
I've never seen a director so horribly miss the entire point of the work that they're adapting. The beautiful Sondheim score, which is one of the greatest musical scores of all time, is destroyed. Most of the score is completely gone and the little music that it left is massacred by incompetent singing.
I don't mind the violence. Sweeney Todd should be violent, however, Burton doesn't seem to realize that the musical IS A COMEDY. It's a pitch black English comedy. The humor is gone, replaced by lame, goth, whispering. Depp is wrong for the role in every aspect. He looks wrong and his singing is wrong. Sweeney is supposed to be a large, scary man, with a deep, dark voice. HBC is also wrong for Lovett. Lovett, a role originated by the incredible Angela Lansbury, is supposed to be a funny, neurotic, warm, yet scary woman. Helena isn't any of this. In fact, her only acting choice seems to be to whisper. Her singing is also awful. Alan Rickman is perfect as Judge Turpin, though and is the film's only redeeming quality.
The film is also very ugly. There are a lot of possibilities when you have a piece set in Victorian London, but Burton has chosen to make this film look as bland and bleak as possible.
This film is a total missed opportunity.
Into the Woods (2014)
One of the Greatest Musicals of All Time Massacred
It's absolutely tragic to me to see so many reviews say that the score is boring or unmemorable. This is one of the greatest musical theatre scores of all time. The music is beautiful, fun, and odd and the lyrics are complex, poetic, and beautiful. Stephen Sondheim is the greatest musical theatre composer and this is one of his best works. James Lapine's original musical book is also phenomenal. It's hysterical, dark, scary, emotional, and tragic.
The casting here is good, for the most part. Meryl Streep is perfect as The Witch, a role created by the great Bernadette Peters. Emily Blunt is lovely, but occasionally misses the comedic nature of her role. The kids who play Jack and Little Red are wonderful. Anna Kendrick is positively awful. She doesn't capture the neurotic and manic demeanor that this version of Cinderella requires. She also doesn't have the pretty operatic soprano that the role is written as. James Corden just doesn't work for me. He's just not right for the role. Most of the rest of the cast is pretty take it or leave it.
The direction and design here is atrocious. The film is ugly, garish, filled with plastic looking CGI. It also tries it's hardest to be as Disney as possible. The musical is scary and violent. The violence is skipped over here which hurts the story. The darkness comes off as false and the whole second act is destroyed. The entire heart of the film has been ripped out and stomped on. The musical makes me weep at the end. This film made me feel absolutely nothing. It's some of the worst adapting of material that I have ever seen.
This needed an artsy team that would embrace the black comedy, darkness, and beauty of the musical. Disney could not have been a worse pick to produce this.
Hopefully we'll get a remake in 10 years or so.
The Favourite (2018)
Olivia Colman Shines in this English Black Comedy
This bizarre little gem holds the best performance of 2018. Olivia Colman has proven herself to be one of the greats over and over again in a wide array of TV shows and Indie films. She is at the top of her game here as crazy Queen Anne, caught in a battle between two women, played brilliantly by the always magnificent Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone. She's tragic, hysterical, scary, and ultimately loveable.
Yorgos Lanthimos definitely has a style. If you've seen The Lobster or The Killing of a Sacred Deer or even Dogtooth, you know what I'm talking about. Funny, uncomfortable, cold, disturbing, distant, beautiful, and tragic can all be words to describe his films. Most of the times an audience member may experience all of these things within a single moment while watching his films. The Favourite is no different.
The Favourite is truly a beautiful and absolutely hysterical film. It's definitely his funniest and most accessible film. He creates a world in which his characters speak in both a period style and a contemporary style. Rachel Weisz feels very period and cold while Emma Stone is warm and contemporary. You expect Stone to roll her eyes, pull out her cellphone, and take a selfie. It creates a brilliant comedic tone throughout the film. The dialogue is also absolutely brilliant and the cast makes it shine.
This is a deeply effective film that I expect many will hate. It's certainly not an easy film to watch and it does require a specific sense of humor. I found myself thinking about it for weeks. That final shot, much like the final shot of The Lobster, will spark debates among you and your friends for months after watching.
Us (2019)
Didn't Really Work For Me
This movie has a lot of promising elements. The cinematography is gorgeous, the art direction is nice, the cast is lovely, the music is phenomenal, and it's got a pretty cool concept. Unfortunately, none of it really comes together or works.
I have a slight problem with Jordan Peele's writing. He comes up with brilliant concepts. Get Out and Us are both great ideas. However, I think he lacks detail and specificity. His characters feel somewhat hallow but are occasionally heightened by great actors. With Us, the twists and scares feel cheap, the story really has no logic, but at the same time has too much logic. The story is bizarre and really makes no sense at all, but I've seen plenty of films that do that too, but they establish a sort of odd, surrealist nature right from the start. Us attempts to constantly over-explain itself. It attempts to pull logic out of absurdity.
Peele's themes are muddled here. I'm not sure I understand, even after two watches and plenty of discussion, what the point of the film is. It attempts to pass itself off as an artsy horror film like Get Out, Hereditary, The Babadook, Midsommar, etc., but all of those films have defined themes. I just don't get the point of this film.
Lupita is good. Not great. She never even gets close to the brilliance of Daniel Kaluuya's performance in Get Out. Winston Duke is only ok and the kids shouldn't even be in the film. All they do is muddle up the film even further. Elisabeth Moss is funny and great in a parody of the typical white woman in a horror film. Unfortunately, none of them are fully formed characters and I didn't really care what happened to any of them, which is kind of an issue.
It is nice to see a black family at the center of a horror film, or really any film at all. Unfortunately, the movie just doesn't really work. It's kind of just a lot of noise that isn't really saying anything.
*on a second watching my opinion is harsher. This movie is bad. Good Cinematography, but it just doesn't make an sort of sense, isn't scary, and the acting is poor. This is the most overhyped film of the year.
Midsommar (2019)
Traumatic, Surreal, Bizarre Masterpiece
I'll start this off with a warning. If you're a mainstream horror fan, you will not like this. It is not The Conjuring, it does not have jump scares, it is a slow movie. It's not scary in the way that most horror films are scary. It doesn't frighten you. It felt traumatic. This is an artsy movie for sure. If you don't like that, don't see it.
Florence Pugh is absolutely phenomenal. She provides the heart for the film and is what keeps the audience emotionally invensted in such a disturbing film. It's one of the greatest horror performances that I have ever seen.
The cinematography is stunningly gorgeous. I've never seen a film look so gory and grotesque and yet absolutely beatiful at the same time. It's some of the best cinematography that I've seen in years. The art direction is also phenomenal in providing us with a floral, candy colored, nightmare world.
And Ari Aster's screenplay and direction is what makes this so special and separates it from other horror pieces. It's slow, methodical, eerie. But the characters are psychological and deep. The dialogue is real and colorful. The plot is surreal and disturbing. He let's the scares crawl at you as opposed to jump at you. He allows you to see what will happen, process it, feel the shock of what's about to happen, and then still shock you even more when it happens.
This film will be divisive. I have no doubt that many people here will hate this. However, while this is a challenging film, it's also a great film. Halfway through a character says something along the lines of "That was so messed up, but I'm trying to keep an open mind." I suggest that audiences take this advice.
PSA, this movie is extremely violent, bloody, and gory. It's pretty horrifying and it could have stuff that is triggering.
Hereditary (2018)
An Instant Classic
This film will be spoken of alongside the likes of The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, and The Shining in the future. Director Ari Aster takes his time in introducing characters, relationships, themes, and tone. It's what some would call "a slow burn." However, I think it's always interesting and always captivating. Aster sinks the audience so deep into what feel almost like a surreal, nightmare world right from the top of the film, so I never felt bored.
Toni Collette gives the greatest horror performance of all time. Without a doubt. She's human, scary, tragic, and maniacal. Alex Wolfe also deserves a huge round of applause for giving one of the most realistic portrayals of a teenager in a horror film. His shock, grief, and guilt feel real and specific.
Aster does give us some truly appalling scares and moments of absolute shock. The final scenes of this film are pure surreal horror. They feel deeply disturbing, deeply frightening, and immediately iconic.
This is a modern classic.
Mother! (2017)
Surreal, Disturbing, Nightmare
I think the issue with this film was that it was presented as a standard horror film, but it was really a surrealist film. This is a genre that is largely dead now, but this film reminds me very much of a the work of Bunuel.
I don't want to give too much away, but this is a film that can be interpreted in many different ways. I think it's a dark, somewhat satirical, personification of religious themes and the concepts of life and creation. Jennifer Lawrence gives a brilliant and effective performance that reminded me of Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby. It's a truly terrifying and brilliantly shot and directed film.
It's certainly divided audiences, but I think that's largely just due to this film being of a dead genre. I don't think people know what to expect from it. I think they're looking for something literal that's just not there.
Booksmart (2019)
I'm the target audience for this film and I still thought it was lame.
"How about we take Lady Bird, Eight Grade, and Superbad and combine them and then suck everything that made those films special right out?" I mean, that must have been the pitch for this one right? This is the type of movie that I should love and yet, I couldn't help, but feel that there wasn't a single original thing in this whole film. What made Lady Bird and Eight Grade so charming was their hyperrealism. It felt like a true, genuine portrayal of teenage life in contemporary America. This film wanders into unrealistic farce, but then wants to turn itself into an intense indie drama halfway through. There are plotholes galore and the performances from the two leads are very weak when they aren't being "OMG soooo quirky and random" by dancing in the street before getting in the car. Skip this one and rewatch the great films this one is clearly riding on the coattails of.
Rocketman (2019)
An Emotionless, Campy, Cringey Biopic
Yeah, the writing is bad. It's eye-roll inducing. Egerton tries his best to overcome the bad writing, the bizarre, campy musical numbers, and some weak supporting performances, especially from the usually great Bryce Dallas Howard. Her acting is over-the-top, her accent isn't natural, and she looks far too young for the part. This is just total miss for me. Elton's music is phenomenal, but the pacing is also all over the place and it all felt rushed. This seems like nothing more than an attempt to ride the coattails of Bohemian Rhapsody's success, which was also a film that I wasn't too fond of. At least that one didn't have such weird musical numbers. I didn't realize how much I didn't need to see Richard Madden attempting to sing Elton John in a Kimono while filing his nails. Egerton is great, but yesh, this one is a total misfire.
Life Itself (2018)
Revolting, Violent, and Emotionally Manipulative
The only way to describe this film is masochistic. It's just a ton of shocking, emotionally manipulative violence and, essentially, torture p*rn that's been presented as another heartfelt spinoff of This is Us. I genuinely think this might be the worst film that I have ever seen. It's bizarre, over the top, and really very disturbing. It has a scene early in the movie that almost made me turn it off. If the pregnant woman getting hit and killed by a bus isn't enough for you than maybe a man pulling out a gun and blowing his brains out right in front of the camera with zero warning will be. Seriously, this movie has a graphic display of suicide that is absurdly gratuitous. This is a truly disturbing film and yet it's portrayed as some sort of beautiful romantic film. DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM. It's a waste of time and all it could possibly do is make you feel very upset and feel bad for all of the truly great actors wasted on this awful project. Do not allow yourself to be emotionally manipulated. Avoid it!
Tyrannosaur (2011)
Olivia Colman Delivers One of The Greatest Performances of All Time
The title is really my entire review. This is a great film, but a hard one to watch. Peter Mullan is also brilliant and terrifying. In fact, the acting here is brilliant from everyone. Olivia Colman, however, is really what makes this movie so hard to watch. Her character's journey (which I won't spoil here) is truly heartbreaking. I can't remember seeing another actress allowing herself to be so vulnerable on screen. She has such a remarkably expressive and loveable face and she just disappears into the role. You never feel like you're watching an actress, but rather a human being. It might be one of the most realistic portrayals of an abused woman that I've ever seen and you can't help, but fall in love with her and want so desperately to reach through the screen and help her. This is a performance that should've won every award possible. One of her final scenes might be one of the greatest pieces of acting ever on film. If you watch this truly great film for nothing else, watch it for her performance.
Killing Eve (2018)
A Brilliant and Darkly Comedic Cat and Mouse Thriller
This is a thrilling new show filled with phenomenal performances. I was expecting an intense drama, which this show certainly is, but I was shocked by how absolutely hysterical it is. It's thoroughly entertaining and filled with phenomenal performances.
I've seen a lot of people singling out Sandra Oh for her performance and she really is at the top of her game here. She's absolutely brilliant, but the star here is ultimately Jodie Comer who is absolutely sensational. She's funny, scary, and some how she makes you genuinely love her even though she's a raging pyscopath. Fiona Shaw is also wonderful in a supporting part. I've always loved her stage work and it was a joy to see her in such a great part here. Overall, this is a great new show, just don't go in expecting a stuffy drama. This is a brilliant, borderline campy, dark comedy that's also a heart racing thriller.