Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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numbersix
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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A few recent ones

Keep the Change: 6/10
Films in which the film-maker wants to utilise and draw attention to a disabled community are usually pretty embarrassing, lacking in storytelling and depth and merely getting patronising positivity from the few people who go to see them. This film, about a functioning autistic man who is forced to attend classes and ends up ina relationship with a more severely autistic woman is in part sweet, funny, and tough. Kudos to the film-maker for managing to make something structured and engaging.

Calibre: 6/10
Edinburgh-winning thriller gets a worldwide Netflix deal. What starts off as a film about two friends going on a hunting trip becomes a remake of Deliverance but with plenty of twists that make it more than just a regular thriller. That said, the main characters are barely much more than stock figures, but it's a solid debut.

Leave No Trace: 7/10
Debra Granik's last film made the Ozark folk look like grotesque villains, but here she does the opposite. This story of a PTSD-suffering vet who insists on living int he wilderness with his teen daughter is thoughtful and sensitive, ensuring that it never mocks the protagonists for their naive ideal but nevertheless showing the beauty of such a lifestyle. It's slow but never boring, with a dash of wit and plenty of restrained emotion, particularly in the performance of newcomer Thomasin MacKenzie.

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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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I also watched Keep the Change a while back and though I can agree it's better than a lot of studio films about the autistic community, I did feel that the offensive jokes made it feel too much like a minstrel show at times.

It has its moments but it's no Dina.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Disobedience 8/10

Sold for its sexual content (and the sex scene is certainly steamier than most Hollywood fare), this is really more the female, Jewish, English counterpart to Brokeback Mountain in that both films focus on two people who have a forbidden relationship against the current around them. I'm not sure why Bleecker Street sold this assuming audiences would expect lots of sex (it proves the whole belief that studios only seem to think people will see films about lesbianism if you promise sex appeal over story) instead of the actual premise of the limiting nature of the Orthodox Jewish community and its effects on the three main characters. These are themes rarely seen in cinema today (especially compared to the 297th film about Evangelicals telling the audience how superior they are to everyone else) and it makes for a compelling story despite its slow burn nature. All three leads do very well, with Rachel McAdams giving perhaps her best and most challenging performance as a devout wife who begins to realize that the marriage she was forced into is not a happy one. And after seeing him in this and You Were Never Really Here, I must wonder why Alessandro Nivola hasn't been given the opportunity to carry a film. I can't think of a bad performance from him ever.

So if you're in the mood for something challenging but aren't ready for a film like First Reformed, this fits the bill.
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Buscemi2
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Won't You Be My Neighbor? 9/10

Fascinating documentary on Pittsburgh's favorite son (no, not Ben Roethlisberger) and his impact on public television, children of the late 20th century, and everything in general. Choosing not to go into what we already know about Mister Rogers, those who already know about his story will learn a lot of new things. Director Morgan Neville also makes an interesting parallel between Fred and Daniel Tiger, one of the many characters he created and voiced, suggesting that Daniel might have been his alter ego (King Friday is also considered as one later in life).

The film has had considerable success for being a documentary with a positive worldview, depicting things you aren't bombarded with every day in the news. And from what I got from the film, I've realized that there isn't a modern-day successor to Mr. Rogers. One could say it's Bill Nye but he was someone propped up by 90's nostalgia and has quite a bit of meanness. If you haven't already cried from his acts of kindness in the film, you might cry some more when you realize that the battles that he fought for better television and a more loving society (both in religion, as he was also an ordained minister, and humanity in general) were ultimately lost to a lot of the people who criticized him.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Sorry to Bother You 1/10

Someone likes Black Mirror way too much. This attempt at political and social satire is overlong, unfunny, and for almost the entire runtime, has no idea what it's trying to say. And what it does say is perhaps one of the dumbest things I've seen a fictional film ever say. I spent much of this film wondering why critics loved it so much and why this was deemed worthy of a wide release while a superior Sundance film like The Tale got dumped onto cable.

Some reviews have claimed that Boots Riley is a fresh new voice in the industry. I think he's nothing more than another all-style filmmaker who has no idea how a story works. Go back to being the political version of The Lonely Island, Boots. Flying Lotus is more original as a filmmaker (and his movie wasn't very good either).
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Hereditary (6/10)

I finally got around to seeing this and came away disappointed. The cast is excellent, apart from a miscast Gabriel Byrne, and the first hour where the film focuses more on the family dynamic and a stark depiction of grief mostly works, but the attempts at horror range from the cliched to the absurd to the outright laughable, and the ending, which is little more than a riff on Rosemary's Baby, is particularly disappointing, especially when you work backwards and realize that if that's what was really going on, none of the horror mechanics leading up to it made any sense.

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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Three Identical Strangers 9/10

Once again, the truth is stranger than fiction. Using testimonials and re-enactments, the story of the triplets who were separated at birth before being reunited in 1980 and proceeded to live a tumulous life filled with ups, downs, twists, and turns is told by an interested Tim Wardle and like some of the best documentaries, is not a cut and dry story. The events are still ongoing (we'll have to wait until 2066 for the conclusion, of which most of us will be dead by then) and for most viewers, many of the elements are new to us (in fact, we may only know of the subjects through their cameo in Desperately Seeking Susan). The film serves as a testament of why we need documentaries and not all of them need to be political, doom and gloom pieces. Because sometimes, you can't make up these things and we need to marvel at these stories instead of wriggle in horror (though there is some of that here).
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Pandas 8/10

An IMAX documentary on the raising of giant pandas and the fight to prevent their extinction is heavy on the cutes and has some nice 3-D effects (this was my first experience with IMAX Laser and though it doesn't seem to be a major improvement from standard digital IMAX at first, it does have some added resolution for native IMAX titles). My only beef with the documentary was that seems to end too soon. You're left wanting to know more about the program shown in the film and the subject and her continued progress in the wild. Maybe a Blu-ray release will likely have some additional material.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Blindspotting 8/10

A far superior Sundance film about people in Oakland seeking a better life than Sorry to Bother You. Instead of being stylish (though there's still some style, being that it's from a music video director) and dependent on nonsensical twists to make a point that gets lost in translation, this is a film that keeps it simple and gets to the point. Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, who both also wrote the screenplay, give impressive performances as childhood friends with different motives, one trying to stay out of trouble on his last three days of probation, the other struggling to understand his changing city while raising his family. In a way, the film feels a lot like the indie films that used to get attention before the studios took over and it became about copying trends (currently it's everything copying A24's model) or putting look ahead of story. It might be a more ambitious film by not trying to be ambitious.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Hmm, thats a harsh review for Sorry to Bother You.

So i saw a couple in cinemas in my mini break in Melbourne, also missed a couple (Incredibles, Avengers) but oh well.

Hereditary
With all the glowing reviews, i thought i was gonna love this, but i didnt- pretty much echo what john said. The cast is very good, i thought the son Peter was very good, surely we will see much more of him (Alex Wolff) but i didn't think Gabriel Byrne was miscast, more so that his character needed a bit more depth. However, the story isn't nearly as chilling as what i heard, in the end it was more like a meh moment at the end rather than a revelation. Yes the slow burn was there but some of the story was just a little bit silly, i didn't buy it.
6/10

Sicario 2
This was much better, i loved the first film- all 3 leads not just Emily Blunt. It had a cracking pace and some dramatic scenes. Some minor flaws with staggered direction but all in all i was very entertained.
7.5/10
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Might as well liven up this page with a few quick thoughts on the movies I've seen this month:

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 6/10:
Doubles down on the braindead absurdity of its predcessor with about half of the dinosaur carnage and charisma from Chris Pratt. It's kind of awful, kind of entertaining and completely unnesscary. Can't wait for the 3rd one.

Ant-Man and the Wasp 7.5/10:
A nice, inconsequenital pallette cleanser following the heaviness of Infinity War. The jokes are pretty amusing, the shrinking/growing technology makes for some pretty cool fight scenes and Paul Rudd remains a delight as the lead character.

Sorry to Bother You 3/10:
Christ, what a mess. Boots Riley tries to deliver commentary on so many political, cultural and socioeconomic issues at once that his message becomes completely incoherent. It also doesn't help that the most of jokes are really weak and it never fully embraces the absurdity of its plot twists. Easily the worst movie I've seen so far this year.

Mission: Impossible-Fallout 8/10:
Just a lean, mean and very well-crafted action flick. The action scenes/stuntwork are ridculous and the storytelling is much tighter than it was in Rogue Nation. Excellent stuff.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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A few recent reviews

Sweet Country: 6/10
Solid Western set in Australia, following an abororiginal servent who kills a white man and goes on the run. Bryan Brown makes a return (remember him in the 80s and 90s) as the town sheriff determined to track down the man, and forced to question himself and his motives.

Sicario 2: 4/10
Ugh, a total disappointment. What made the first film so fresh and exciting is utterly lost here. This plays more like a b-sides album, full of loose ideas but not cohering into anything different. And what's worse, there's a twist that is so fucking ridiculous it may as well be a comedy. Plus some of the decisions by the characters to go against the official line are totally unmotivated and contrived just to change the course of the plot. The first was a brilliant film about getting trapped in the system, and the second is a generic and forgettable thriller.

Incredibles 2: 6/10
The first half is excellent, combining good jokes, great actions sequences (Brad Bird should do a live action superhero flick and show those Russo Bros how to do it) and a very good premise. The idea of Mr Incredible having to stay at home and struggle to be a dad delives some great jokes and an equally great message. And some of the best bits are with the kids. However, the story of Screenslaver and the various reveals are all pretty underwhelming, as is the climactic action sequence, and the whole pacing of the film is off, which is a real shame.

Disobedience: 6/10
An impressive drama from Sebastian Lelio (why the hell is he remaking Gloria in English?!?!) about a photographer who returns to her home, a Hasidic Jewish family, to attend her estranged father's funeral, only to end up reigniting a passion for her teen best buddy who has hidden her sexuality and is now married to the photographer's cousin. It's a sophisticated, tasteful and modest film that doesn't contrive any easy endings, but feels satisfying anyway. As Boosch said, all three members of the cast are strong and hopefully will get recognised during Awards Season.

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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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The Spy Who Dumped Me 7.5/10
For the 2nd year in a row, Lionsgate has delivered a nice late-summer buddy actioncom. While it's definitely a bit overlong and too committed to its middling espionage plot in the final third, Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon's chemistry is excellent, there's a solid amount of laugh-out-loud moments and Susanna Fogel handles the brutal, over-the-top action setpieces very well.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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The Equalizer 2 5/10

Skyscraper 3/10

Two wastes of decent premises. The Equalizer 2 has a better peak but falls with its difficult to follow third act, climaxing in a shootout during a Nor'easter where it's difficult to make out anything. And despite the R rating, the film is considerably more toned down and less ambitious than its predecessor (it should not come as a surprise that this was scripted by the same person who wrote Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, another restrained sequel to a superior first film). Denzel Washington is still charismatic but Antoine Fuqua's direction is on autopilot, as if he only did the film as a contractual obligation.

Meanwhile, Skyscraper could have taken advantage of its Die Hard/The Towering Inferno in Hong Kong premise by being fun, not too serious, and making good use of its bilingual cast. But instead, Rawson Marshall Thurber (who had never directed straight action before and it shows) paints by the numbers and simply makes a predictable film that any hack could have made (Thurber was also the screenwriter and one of the producers). But it's nice to see Neve Campbell in a new movie.

I reviewed these together as along with seeing them together, I noticed that the two films back-to-back are basically The Hurricane Heist deconstructed. I guess the one other positive is that these two are better than that film.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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So, i finally got through some Marvel...

Thor: Ragnarok
Pleasant, slightly entertaining and ultimately forgettable- but colorful. Director Taika Waititi's humor is stamped all over this but its feels like just another cog in the marvel machine.
5.5/10

Black Panther
I can't recall seeing a movie which looked so good that had so little substance. How da fuck did this make so much mula!!??? Granted, my expectations were sky high, its predicatable and does nothing but crank up the action (prob a good thing in cinema), special effects and not quite spot on south african accents- unless you're Andy Serkis, that guy can play anyone...
4.5/10

Avengers: Infinty War
After the two films above, i was not sure what to expect. But this movie just went BANG! Sooo many characters, a massive cast and finally a worthy villain. The script was pretty good, the action is up there with the best from Marvel -and so too is the humor, there were some pretty funny bits like when Quill and Thor first meet or Bruce Banner failing to go green. Im sure all of you have already seen this so nothing new from me but i did enjoy it and much more than Avengers 2.
7.5/10
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