Watched 6 August 2017
Bong Joon-ho cementing himself as one of my favourite living directors.
Even though this film shows its influences very clearly (Spielberg, Zemeckis, Miyazaki), Bong imbues it with his own brand of weird to deliver an exceptionally surprising and endearing film, with brilliantly fleshed-out characters. Okja hits all the notes it reaches for, and then some.
Watched 23 July 2017
Beautiful character-focused cinematography, hair-raising tension, confusingly messy editing.
What did this gain by opting for a nonlinear timeline? Certainly not more than it lost. Felt like Nolan trying to make the genre feel new, and failing.
Watched 23 July 2017
What does this movie even want
Watched 9 June 2017
This is exactly like The Revenant, except much more focused and actually able to get under my skin at times.
Films with brutally simple plots (not simplistic, mind you) executed well seem to be a rare delight these days. Bonus points: under ninety minutes.
Watched 5 June 2017
Design by Committee: The Movie
Watched 4 June 2017
A bit too much of the original’s blunt simplicity is missing here, but it’s still damn good. The mirrors scene is one for the ages.
Watched 20 May 2017
If you thought characters did stupid shit in Prometheus, wait ‘til you see this one. Ridley Scott is more concerned with establishing capricious moments than he is with putting out a coherent film, it seems.
This is a hopelessly misguided doubling-down on everything Prometheus got wrong, but with that film’s amazing production design and worldbuilding completely removed. Future humans on an interstellar colonization mission are literally still using GoPros.
The classic Alien title sequence is reused, but it’s no longer the opening shot, and it’s sped-up. Instead of yielding an atmosphere of slow-burn creepiness, we get low-attention-span throwback. And that sadly matches up pretty well with what Alien: Covenant feels like.
The creatures are as cool as ever, though.
Watched 9 May 2017
This strikes a brilliant balance between creepy and fun — it manages to be both things at once, without either detracting from the other. It’s built entirely with this duality as a central mechanic, and does a great job of exploring its limits.
I saw one of the big twists coming miles away (avoiding spoilers, let’s call it “the box of photos”), so I wondered if this could have worked even better as a Touch of Evil-esque “the audience knows what’s coming” kind of deal. But then I realized that having a nagging feeling that that is what’s going on is really well aligned with the film’s themes and so now I’m thinking I want to watch this again.
Watched 29 March 2017
Down to the dramatic putting-down of phones and title card fetish, this is exactly what I was hoping for: a live-action manifestation of Hideaki Anno’s cinematic obsessions with giant monsters, heavy machinery, and the flaws of humanity.
It’s just missing that extra bit of directorial precision he manages to pull off with animation, especially in terms of acting and camerawork.
Rewatched 23 March 2017
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that the monsters don’t show up enough in this movie.
The Ligeti-scored skydiving scene and the atomic breath reveal are just as awesome as I remembered them. This stands up as one of the most gripping giant monster movies ever.
Watched 17 March 2017
This is nothing to write home about, but it’s a solid monster movie. Which is all I was hoping for, really.
The tone is the polar opposite of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla — it feels fun instead of tense. That in itself is perfectly okay, but I wish it could have kept some of that Jurassic Park-like subtlety that worked so well for Godzilla.
Watched 3 March 2017
Like a lot of mystery stories, some of the excitement starts to fade as the curtain is pulled back. And then it almost becomes a matter of taste: you may or may not like where it goes. I wasn’t amazed by the destination, but I quite enjoyed the journey on this one.
For an admittedly small film it dares to feel big, and for all its tension it manages to find some serenity. And it does those things without appearing contrived. It feels balanced, distinct, and personal.
Watched 1 March 2017
This film is the cinematic equivalent of clickbait: begging you to look at it while having nothing to say.
Few films have given me a harder time suspending disbelief. No part of it has any depth. Not the plot, not the dialogue, not the sci-fi, not the romance. And it has the nerve to acknowledge its hollow meaninglessness when that crappy Imagine Dragons song comes on in the end.
I really enjoyed Morten Tyldum’s other films Imitation Game and Headhunters, but this is some lowest-common-denominator garbage. It does look pretty, tho.
Watched 24 February 2017
Supporting characters could have been a lot better, and some of the dialogue tries so hard to be “realistic” that it goes right back down the uncanny valley. But overall this is a solid 90-minute gem that can keep its intrigue from start to finish. Tightly plotted, executing well on its themes.
Watched 19 February 2017
Nothing this film attempts to do differently manages to set it free from the curse of zombie sameyness.
Watched 12 February 2017
I’m a sucker for dark, velvety thrillers, and this one worked pretty well for me. The bleak tone had me completely hooked within five minutes. Though it sometimes feels a bit derivative (some moments were especially on-the-nose Lynchian), I cannot deny that it’s effective. It is a dexterously unsettling film.
Tom Ford is, no doubt, a sharp aesthete. What I wasn’t expecting was a very palpable feeling of futility and hopelessness as the other side of the coin, and impostor syndrome as a plot device. It works well in adding some substance to the style.
Pretty great for a film about spiteful, vengeful assholery. It’s not an easy theme to pull off.