this was surprisingly gripping. as much as it relied on every cliché in the book, clichés are clichés for a reason and, i dont know, call it christmas spirit but this had me crying a few good tears
This had such a strong start and then I think Lin-Manuel Miranda got a bit lost in all the different ideas he had both for particular scenes and for the tone of the movie as a whole. Needed to be a little tighter and have a stronger identity, but some sequences were truly incredible. The way he juxtaposes the actual play, written by Larson, called Tick Tick… BOOM!, which essentially is about the turbulent period of the playwright’s life represented in the film, with the actual narrative scenes, blending them sometimes so that you can’t quite figure out which belongs to which, works really well. Garfield is amazing as always. Overall, a must watch film of the season and a strong contended for many awards.
I thought this was beautiful, simple, human, hopeful and warm. Loved it.
Albeit not the type of film that I connect to normally, it still kept me gripped throughout much due to Campion’s powerful and confident handling of tension, timing and suspense. An incredible original score elevates it even further. And one of Cumberbatch’s best performances. A must watch for the season.
Started off incredibly strong but starts dragging by the last third. What feels fresh, surprising and original in the beginning becomes repetitive, predictable and quite honestly boring by the end. Still, a very enjoyable watch - I especially liked the genuine chuckles I let out in the first half of the film - some great one liners!
I am usually very sensitive to pretentiousness and easily turned off by it in art, but because this was a travel film for me from the get go, my mind just forgot the fact this was a documentary about a famous person.
What I mean is that, after finishing it, what has stayed has been the images of all these different places in the world I hope I also get to film one day, and the quote by Fellini about how if you have curiosity you will never be bored. Aznavour’s life is almost secondary to the people he films in his travels, and the sequences about his wives and career become highly uninteresting compared to his recounts of Paris, his parent’s journey to France, his first trip to the United States and his beautiful images of the Magreb, Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, and others.
My experience watching this was of a fascinated travel lover much like Aznavour himself, and the deep wish to get out there and see the world too. Thankfully, when your bank account doesn’t agree, at least there’s cinema.
For the first hour of this film I was so excited about it possibly being my first 10/10 rating of this award season but then they had Diana say, with her full chest, that she likes middle class things like les mis, phantom of the opera and fast food, and it just lost some credibility.
Why have all the films I’ve been watching lately had such poor third acts? It’s like filmmakers run out of ideas, but have to make feature length runtime so they just repeat the same themes over and over. Luckily, the themes in this movie were strong enough to hold it together for that shaky finish line, much like Stewart’s performance and the breathtaking photography, score and costume design. Screenplay was lacking at times and Directing was just good enough to make up for it. So a 9 it is!
Gorgeously elevated. I was scared it’d be missing the glow 50s and 60s Hollywood brings, but Spielberg’s passion for this project is clear in every shot and sequence - some really breathtaking cinematic moments in this one. An incredible show-stopping performance from Ariana DeBose, works wonders paired with Rachel Zegler’s sweet demeanour.
This is one to rewatch countless times without ever getting bored (the music is as fantastic and iconic as always, and so is the dancing of course!).
(We’ll ignore Ansel Elgort is even a part of this. He looks, acts and sings in a manner so generic that you won’t have a hard time imagining him to be literally any other okay actor in Hollywood)
Only two words needed: Josh O'Connor.
Great thing about animated films, and cinema in general, is that you will take from it whatever it tells you, personally. We each experience a film our own way and our interpretations and feelings towards it are inevitably influenced by our lives at the moment of watching.
Encanto to me is about the young-adult period of your life where everyone around you seems to have found their calling - some seem to have always known it even. A plan laid out out and a sense of purpose. Encanto deconstructs that idea by making the character with no gift its heroine, and by diving into the insecurities, the burdens and pressures of the characters who do have gifts. They have been reduced to their abilities or feel like they must never fail or complain, when really they just want to relax and be creative. That’s a powerful message - that it doesn’t matter whether you have a gift or not, your worth comes from who you are as a human being and your relationship with others.
I have to say, besides the colours, I found the animation pretty boring and alike a lot of Disney stuff we’ve seen for the past 10 years - it’s time for a change! The music was fun, the cultural and historical nods were great.
Solid effort by Disney!
Kind of disturbing that this was all a twitter thread, kind of dystopian. Zola was a different approach to filmmaking and scriptwriting that I was curious to check out but the end-result was only so-so. The visuals are often stunning and the nods to the original platforms the stories were posted on were funny, but the narrative just wasn’t strong enough to hold a whole feature film.
I don’t know but this is the only Marvel movie with a BTS song in it and for me that is enough
This is the most wholesome Wong film I’ve watched so far. The second story made me so happy for some reason. His movies are often depressing and sad and claustrophobic but this one felt like a rom-com in comparison and a rom-com directed by Wong kar-wai is something that must be seen.
I am an emotional wreck. The longing and passion between the protagonists is breath taking… Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung had me glued to the screen, their performances are so vulnerable and they had so much chemistry. I always love the narrations in Wong films but in this one, because the characters were so reluctant to open up to one another, they hit me twice as hard. Of course they didn’t get a happy ending, but I swear I was holding out hope till the last second.
“Why did you take that washing powder?”
“It’s biological.”
And I believe in Caitríona Balfe supremacy.
I appreciate this film’s effort to tell such a famous story from an unexpected perspective. As a casual tennis fan and huge Williams sisters admirer, I knew little about the role Richard Williams played in their success.
By choosing to centre Richard, as much as it somewhat takes away from Venus and Serena’s much deserved and hard-earned protagonism, it does offer something different from your expected biopic. This raised really interesting questions about fatherhood and young stardom, spending a relatively big portion of the film around the debate of whether Venus should play junior tournaments - as much as Richard planned his children’s whole life for them and worked them so hard a neighbour even had to call the cops on him, here he chooses an unexpected stance by prioritising their childhood and education above entering big level competitions so early on. Therefore, I feel like this is a pretty balanced portrayal of Richard, giving credit where credit is due when it comes to his unwavering belief in his children, his unconditional love for them and vision, but also using other characters like Oracene or the coaches to call him out on his more eccentric behaviours and whenever his ego starts to get the best of him. The final speech with Venus in the lockerroom leads you by the hand to reach the conclusion that he was essentially a good father, but the movie still leaves considerable space for you to make your own judgements and to spark debate on how to raise a prodigy child (or even more complicated- two!). By knowing how Venus and Serena turned out in the end, we also are more prone to siding with Richard, because however him and Oracene raised their children, it looks like it worked because the Williams sisters have had a remarkable journey, whilst remaining humble and giving back.
As much as the screenplay’s highs and lows follow the standard for a big Hollywood movie; as much as there’s not much nuance surrounding the issue of race (with some scenes being forced into the narrative for emphasis, but not quite fitting in); as much as there’s some loose threads that are common with biopics that have to deal with real (messy) lives and real (messy) people and try to force them into a pretty little organised Hollywood picture; this movie still has a lot working in its favour, namely the choice of subject matter, Will Smith’s performance and the excitement that always accompanies sports-related films.
This was a solid family drama, emotional and funny but expected and obvious on almost every turn. The novelty here is the people whose story is told, but the way in which it is told is completely standard. Still, 100% worth the watch and moved me to tears.
“I want a ride-or-die. I just want someone that’s always gonna love me, no matter what. Someone that’s gonna hold my hand and never let it go. She got to be special, though. ‘Cause she gonna be my legacy.”
“What do you mean?”
“I ain’t going to bend the world. As long as my lady remembers me fondly, that’s all I need.”
Happy Valentine’s Day :heart:
it’s painful that Zendaya is in this (and doing an absolute amazing job) because then I am forced to watch it and even tho so episodes are somewhat worth it, others like this one are literally the most pretentious empty weird self-important 60 minutes of tv. sigh. at least Zendaya is in it.
only 5 episodes in and they already have me weeping like a baby
Finally. My first 10/10 movie of the 2022 Academy Awards. If a Disney movie wins over this, I’m rioting. Absolutely breathtaking. One of the best documentaries I have ever watched.
A 3-hour long runtime is always intimidating, but every second of this felt necessary. It’s slow, but it doesn’t drag. Instead the tempo and stillness allow you to sit with these wonderfully complicated and wounded characters, both as a spectator to their stories and difficulties and as a part of the film yourself. Much like Takatsuki’s monologue about loving yourself before loving someone else, a good story is primarily about your subjective relationship with it, and only secondarily about its objective characters and plots. A good movie is introspective and connects to parts of your own soul and psyche by way of someone else’s (characters, director, writer). And Drive My Car is a really good movie.
Almost Famous meets Once Upon a Time In Hollywood… A cute movie with some questionable choices. Hyper-americanised stories never really resonate with me much. Alana Haim is the best part about it, hope she keeps acting!
I found this to be incredibly unsettling and unnerving. I wanted to shake these characters from start to finish, nothing they did made any sense to me. However, I do think that’s exactly the direction the film was going for, so it’s successful in that sense.
I couldn’t settle on a score for this because i didn’t exactly like it but I can recognise its merits.
This is exactly the kind of film that moves me. Equal parts simple and intentionally imperfect, focusing on an universal human experience of not knowing what the fuck we’re doing.
I do agree that I would have loved to have more of Julie being single - when she breaks up with Aksel she says that the big issue is that she doesn’t think she can stand on her own and that’s why they need to separate, only to then immediately enter into another relationship. I guess in the end we see that she has indeed found peace in herself, no appendices, but I think it would have been great to see more of that.
Above all, I relate heavily to Julie and am really glad this film exists.
If you’re making something about Frida Kahlo and you’re doing it with dedication and diligence you can never come out of it unsuccessful, simply because Frida’s life is all too vibrant and interesting to sustain any mishaps. That’s what happens here - it’s not great but it’s far from bad too.
The film loses its thread early on when it mixes too many concepts. Later on it becomes slightly more focused as we begin understanding the intent behind the director’s choices. It is informative in an uncompromising way, never really assuming a critical approach to Frida’s life. The highlights, personally, were the moments were each Frida painting was described in detail, as well as the readings from Frida’s journal and notes.
As far as biopics go, this was one of the better ones i’ve watched lately. It’s never really my fave genre but I think Sorkin did a nice enough job at dramatising these stories in a way that’s cinematically and narratively interesting.
I thought bundling the different troubles Lucille was going through together so they could all develop in a single week was a good shout. The jumps between timelines were often messy, but mostly okay. Somehow my favourite motif, though, was Lucille’s obsession with that dinner scene, I thought it was a clever way to evidence her building frustration throughout the week, whilst simultaneously presenting some of her strongest features as a character or, i guess, the real person Kidman based her performance on.
My favourite thing about the film was Kidman and Barden’s chemistry. I was instantly sold on their rocky, layered relationship and the power dynamics between them throughout were quite interesting. Their bond managed to keep the film somewhat grounded and concise through time jumps and the 300 different issues going on at the same time.
Genetics and blood relation are a wonderful, creepy thing. We are our parents just as they are us. Their story is our story, and any story we create is a continuation of theirs. Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman is a time capsule film that weaves past and present together as if they were concurrent, which ultimately they are.
Film’s ability to warp linear time is particularly satisfying because it comes closer to representing how humans experience time in real life than any other medium can.
Sciamma does a great job at capturing that singular childhood experience of really seeing your mother for the first time, when you realise she had an entire life before you, that she is more than just a mother but a person and a child too. Nelly pictures her mum’s life at her age, and her relationship with her own mother, which allows her to better understand and empathise with the pain her mother is going through in the present.
The house (full and empty) and the woods as the bridge between the two add a powerful symbolism for the experience of growing up.
Beautiful!
This was too normal for a Studio Ghibli film. It was beautiful and had an important message just like they all do, but it fell somewhat flat for me, personally. Still, it was great to watch a biopic in the animated format, it’s not a very common pursuit.
This is an incredibly hard film to review, simply because it truly puts into perspective just how useless any criticism against it is. The point of this movie is not to be a cinematic masterpiece, but to shock. And shock it does.
It succeeds for almost the entirety of its runtime in showing, through the use of non-professional actors and a social-realism directing style, the hardest truths about our rotten world. It fails, however, in the target it directs its social commentary at, often feeling indecisive or lost regarding what message it is trying to convey.
Labaki’s premise was the exploration of the lack of value a child’s life has in an environment like the one her film portrays, which does ultimately come through in the final product.
Despite a shaky finish where most of its faults are exposed, the large majority of the film is of mandatory viewing. In the end, reviewing it is meaningless because most of us will not be fit to judge it in the slightest, and could come off as unbearably out-of-touch if we try.
