numbersix wrote:Parasite: 8/10
Fantastic Korean satire, deserved of its Palme D'Or win (though I haven't seen any of its competitors). A destitute family try to weasel their way into the world of a wealthy family by posing as various different workers (a teacher, an art therapist, etc). Despite being so underhanded they're sympathetic because of their struggles. And that's only the start of a film full of strange and hilarious surprises, giving us a Hitchcockian thriller with a social conscience. The is Bong Joon-ho's best film since The Host, maybe his best since Memories of a Murder.
Indeed, what a great film. Saw it last month, I'm so glad such a film won the Palme d'Or. The finesse is everywhere, the writing, the direction, the acting, it says so much about today's society with such a craft. I've only seen 4 films of the competition, with the Almodovar, Sybil and The Dead don't die being the other 3, and Parasite is so, so so above them all.
In France the film is a huge box-office hit. By the end of this week, the film will cross 1 million admissions. Up until now, the biggest success for a film in Korean was around 300.000 admissions. It's been released for the past month and it's still in the Top 5.
This would have been a better film had it focused more on the artists (including one of Tom Petty's final interviews) and less on Jakob Dylan's ego. The film claims to be about the folk rock music scene in the 60's but much of that takes a back seat in favor of Dylan and some of his friends (which make for uninteresting subjects) having a concert based on an obscure Jacques Demy movie Dylan liked. Which is too bad because the stories some of the surviving subjects who lived the folk rock boom tell are interesting. But Dylan and his director (who was actually a former Capitol head with no filmmaking ability) are more interested in bridging the documentary together with lame covers that mainly sound like variations of Lady Gaga's Shallow rather than the songs they want to emulate.
It's somewhat baffling why this has been a popular documentary (other than old people loving it). This should have been a special for PBS with just the interviews with Slightly Better Rob Thomas and Friends being its own thing.
This dull and overlong attempt at trying to be Bergman ends up more or less saying "Don't do drugs, kids.". None of the characters are very interesting (Will Poulter might have the most unlikeable character in a film in recent memory) and every scene goes much longer than it has any right to be. It's as if Ari Aster forgot why Hereditary was good and decided to make a film as self-indulgent and boring as possible just because A24 let him. Also, the commune really didn't make much sense to me. What do they stand for? You'd think they were Luddites but they watch movies. You'd think they were hardcore religious but they have sex outside of marriage. You'd think they were straight edge but they indulge in drugs and eating meat. Aster seemed to more work into the designs than actually explaining why they do these things.
In the end, it's a very hamfisted load of emptiness and half the audience thought they were watching a comedy.
Far From Home was awful - a prime example of the extremely bland assembly-line blockbusters that have defined the summer blockbusters recently.
Most of the film is filler until the post-credits scenes - kind of like Ant-Man And The Wasp. I did like how they acknowledged Endgame, but I found the character arc in this very unbelievable - why would a character famous for his sixth sense give access to nukes (which was trusted to him by his mentor who sacrificed himself to save him and half of the universe) to someone he just met?
I shouldn't have expected Marvel Studios to make something that stands out in a positive way, but their films over the past few years have been much better, and I really thought they were getting away from the same format that has influenced superhero films since - I should have been more wary of this.
It's not destroying. It's making something new.
Image courtesy of -
https://nerdist.com/annihilation-shimmer-ending-explained/
Few quick thoughts on the movies I've seen over the past couple weekends.
Child's Play 8/10
Most purely fun slasher movie I've seen in ages. The kills are creative and memorable, there's some brilliant bits of dark comedy scattered throughout and Mark Hamill does a terrific job of making Chucky his own.
Toy Story 4 8.5/10
I'll echo W's sentiment: It doesn't cover any new ground and is probably the weakest of the series, but it's still a very pleasant ride with great characters, some big laughs and plenty of heart. Also I want a Duke Caboom spin-off ASAP.
Spider-Man: Far from Home 7.5/10
Forcing Peter Parker to grow up after the events of Infinity War and Endgame is somewhat of a detriment to this series. The goofy, coming-of-age charm made Homecoming standout from its peers and while there's still a fair amount of jokes and awkward high schooler moments, implementing a more serious tone with higher stakes causes this to blend in to with the good, but not great movies Marvel churned out with regularity before Ragnarok/Black Panther/the past 2 Avengers movies. On the plus side, Tom Holland continues to thrive as Spider-Man, Jake Gyllenhaal is awesome as Mysterio and the twists have some potentially interesting long-term implications for the MCU.
Probably the most okayest documentary you'll see this year. The material covering Armstrong as a person is more interesting than Armstrong as an astronaut while the casting of Harrison Ford reading Armstrong's personal notes really doesn't add much to the proceedings. Also, I noticed they reused a lot of footage from Apollo 11 but cropped to Academy ratio (possible dupes?) even though the film is presented in scope (so lots of Nolan-style aspect ratio switching).
It would have been more interesting as a one-hour documentary shown in schools. At 100 minutes, it's rather empty though it has some fascinating material.
A movie that teamed up Sam Raimi with the director of Piranha 3-D should have been better than this. This alligator movie barely has a pulse as what could have been an okay short film is tedious at nearly 90 minutes. The characters aren't particularly interesting (Maze Runner girl can't really carry a film and reminds me too much of Cara Delvingne) and the alligators aren't in it long enough. Paramount thought this would be this year's The Meg but The Meg was an entertaining film that didn't take itself seriously. This one is too serious for its own good and ends up basically being a slightly-better version of The Hurricane Heist instead of the wild ride it aspires to be.
Buscemi2 wrote:a slightly-better version of The Hurricane Heist instead of the wild ride it aspires to be.
I thought the same thing after the very beginning. Flashbacks, of course she swims for the Gators, “apex predator” is so cringeworthy. And he’s so proud of his 8 year old for being in a pool alone at 3 am? That and it was boring as Hell with the same thing happening over and over.
If you don’t want to pay to see this just watch the trailer about thirty times. Same effect.
Tenet: Criterion Edition. Now with more Backwards Man.
Another example of what Roger Ebert called the idiot plot. It things were bad enough that it's essentially poverty porn designed to appeal to rich people and upper-class critics, the entire storyline mainly exists to make the main character stupid by trusting her irresponsible sister because she's family. If Tessa Thompson's character doesn't get her sister (a miscast Lily James) involved with the drug deal, the movie would only be ten minutes long. But because the movie needed to be in the main competition at Sundance, we get this dour and hopeless film that made me wish I were watching the much-superior The Rider again instead.
I hope the new Candyman doesn't turn out like this one did.
I don't get the pans on here for this. I thought it was pretty intense and entertaining that was good as what it intended to be - a popcorn horror flick without high aspirations. Some of the scares genuinely hit, and the foreboding backdrop adds to a sense of unpredictability. It's pretty much Murphy's Law put to film, as most of these survival/closed-in location horror films are. It's definitely not a masterpiece - the acting is only passable, the CGI for the alligators is SyFy level rough, and the film goes a little over the top sometimes. Overall, it's the exact kind of disposable creature feature B-movie that are solely lacking in theaters nowadays.
7 out of 10
It's not destroying. It's making something new.
Image courtesy of -
https://nerdist.com/annihilation-shimmer-ending-explained/
Bloody war epic that isn't at the level of Zhang Yimou's best but shows the master succeeding at his trademarks. Mixing action, romance, and Shakespearian drama once again, Zhang makes the film a feast of sound and visuals and does not shy away from conflict and intrigue. The whiplash of the plot can get confusing to keep up at times but it's a stunning film that much of the Chinese film industry seems to have forgotten how to make lately. Also, the Pei umbrella might be one of the most original, if impractical, movie weapons in some time.
I didn't get to finish the movie about a month ago when someone pulled the fire alarm, though i was actually so bored by that time, i didn't care. There were no characters to root for
Half a good movie, really. The film succeeds when it's focused around the house and what it means to Jimmie. The relationship between Jimmie and Montgomery (whose actor gives the film's best performance) also works. However, the film falters when it tries to become a Bay Area Spike Lee film. I don't think Fails or the people making the film have the ability to do such a big idea right off the bat. In addition, the film runs too long as it is felt that they needed to do so many different ideas at once. Had it been a simpler story with the bigger ideas saved for a more ambitious second film, this might have worked more for me.
Critics have been calling this "the perfect film for 2019's culture". And I have to agree with this sentiment.
The thing that this film nails about alt-right groups and cult mentality in general is how they lure in are easy targets that they see as weak. Alessandro Nivola and Jesse Eisenberg are the standout performances of this film. Nivola, in particular, is a standout as the leader of the dojo, who plays the role of a misogynistic, somewhat bro-esque character who hides darker secrets. His character's interplay with Eisenberg shows the duality in their personalities (this and the dark, twisted humor make the Fight Club comparisons make sense), while Imogen Poots plays the sole female in the misogynistic dojo who has talent that obviously eclipses her boss, but will never be recognized as such because of her gender. The film takes some very dark turns towards the end that overstep the already black comedy and satire, but the accuracy of the film's commentary remains the same.
Also, I thought it was nice how they left it up to the audience as to whether Leslie/Sensei killed the old grandmaster or not. Also, I wondered if the ending was implying that Casey was going to follow in Leslie's footsteps.
9 out of 10
It's not destroying. It's making something new.
Image courtesy of -
https://nerdist.com/annihilation-shimmer-ending-explained/
