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Starts off strong, effectively building tension through striking cinematography and sharp editing/pacing, but once the table has been properly set, it's a gradual nosedive to the perplexing finale. The acting is undeniably committed and the child actors are pitch-perfect, but the exaggerated, go-for-broke lead performances teeter into overkill and would have been more effective if reined in a bit. Also, the frequent attempts at humor, though sometimes successful, completely undercut the unnerving tone. It felt like Peele wasn't confident in…
Jarmusch's work occasionally falls flat for me but with The Dead Don’t Die, he goes beyond anti-comedy and anti-horror, essentially creating an anti-film so lazy and uninspired—the cop car's number is “001”—it’s as if complete apathy is his entire approach. Some may be charmed by the lack of style, substance, character development, purpose, and, well, anything to really latch onto, but to me, Jarmusch's refusal to commit to anything is maddening. The social commentary is so thin, it almost feels…
This thing goes in such an absurdist direction, which I wouldn't have a huge problem with if it didn't completely undercut the deeper thematic material. The third act completely falls apart and the film never really commits stylistically which is a shame because there's clear potential in front of and behind the camera.
Apart from the main character, who is clearly meant to be an irresistible narcissist though I found him rather charmless from minute one, there's no sense of depth or complexity to these characters or their circumstances. Whishaw comes out strongest, mostly because he has the film's biggest scenes, but Exarchopoulos is given a thankless role and Rogowski is wildly miscast in a role that basically defines the film. It briefly flirts with boldness in its final act, but on the whole, the material is woefully predictable and underdeveloped.
Maybe I'm just broken after seeing Shoplifters 3 times, but I had a relatively mild reaction to this one; found it mildly funny, mildly moving, mildly pleasant, etc. I liked how unpretentious it was and some scenes are pretty powerful, especially in the closing stretch, but the stripped-down narrative and characters feel more underdeveloped than appropriately simplistic.
Burning is seared into my mind. Lee Chang-dong has crafted an absolutely stunning slow-burn psychological drama that respects the audience’s intelligence and rewards their patience. On paper, the premise is simple: a quiet, unassuming man loses his girlfriend to a charismatic psychopath. But the film is lush with psychological complexity and by employing a non-traditional structure and hypnotic pacing, Lee keeps his audience in a tight grasp.
Lee Chang-dong has always toyed with narrative structure. His second film Peppermint Candy…
Visually breathtaking, but apart from a few narrative flourishes, it still trades in many aspects of superhero films that simply don't appeal to me. It's brimming with eye-rolling one-liners and really uninspired dialog, which is likely only made more apparent by the fact that it's juxtaposed with an incredibly inventive, vibrant, and refreshing visual style. The animation utilizes image, color, and light distortion to create a gorgeous, entirely unique style that mimics pages of a comic book, yet still feels…
Early on, Julie laments that she feels like a supporting character in someone else's story, and it was as if Trier had been reading my mind, because that was my primary gripe with the film to that point. I expected this moment of self-awareness to lead to a shift in the storytelling, but it never came. Unlike The Souvenir which develops its main character through her relationships with other people and directly addresses her creative and personal marginalization by the…
Calling Shazam! "fun" feels dismissive, because sure, it's a lot of fun, but it's also one of the most unpretentious, heartfelt, exciting, and flat-out best superhero films in a long time. The first act is a bit clunky and bloated, but my fears that this would feel like a glorified TV pilot quickly dissipated. The expected corny humor gets a much needed dose of self-awareness, the characters feel fully fleshed out (even the somewhat one-dimensional villain has clear motivations which…
It’s impossible to go into a film without preconceptions. You can avoid trailers and reviews, mute words on twitter, and try to go in with an open mind, but as the lights dim, you’ve got a general idea of what you’re about to watch and some level of hope or expectation of how you’ll feel about it. Joker even more so, since it’s based on a massively popular character that’s already had numerous depictions in the past decade alone. Beyond…
It's tough to say I flat-out hated this movie when I walked away in a relatively good mood, but I can't deny I think it's absolutely horrible. Ironically, there are a couple short stretches near the beginning of the film that I think rank among the best sequences I've seen so far this year. Through Debie's gorgeous cinematography, effective editing, and some inspired song choices, he creates a beautiful sense of living in the ecstatic moment with Moondog.
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