Fran

My favourite thing about this movie is how human it is, how human it feels. It tackles an incredibly serious issue, yet it doesn't take itself too seriously, but it's comedy is perfectly timed and doesn't take anything away from the important conversations and issues that are raised all throughout. It manages to show both the uplifting and the horrible, discouraging things this world is full of, and the fact that it's a true story makes it all the more inspiring. Incredible work by both Mortensen and Ali, I thought their chemistry was on point. It made me laugh my heart out, reflect, get angry, and cry.

9/10

EDIT: As a result of Green Book's wins at the Golden Globes it has come to my attention how one sided the portrayal of Shirley and Lip actually was in this movie, with Lip's testimony and his family taking the reins and Shirley's family barely getting any say on what made or didn't make the film. I did think the whole vibe of Don not being "black enough" all throughout the movie smelled funny, but I figured - if this is how he really thought, then this is how they should show it. Well, I guess not only did he not think that, that entire narrative was constructed by a creative team composed of like 90% white people - and then Octavia Spencer - that really did not do justice to Dr. Shirley. He also apparently didn't consider Tony a close friend in real life, had previously refused to make a movie about their friendship when he was still alive, and was never estranged from his family like the movie shows you... So I really don't know what to believe. My laughter and tears were genuine while watching this, but I might have to watch it a second time, with all of this new information in mind, to really reconsider the whole thing.

8/10

Gosh, watching this is like relieving my entire life. Coldplay have been together for 20 years, and I am 20 years old. They're one of my mum's favourite bands, they were one of my brother's favourite bands and they became one of my favourite bands really early on. I think I knew how to sing Yellow before I even knew more than 4 words in english - which is why, to this day, I will still some times sing gibberish instead of the actual lyrics to that song. Coldplay have been around my whole life, they're the only big act I've ever seen live more than once. I've been through phases where they were my absolute favourites, others where their music didn't really click with me, but through out all of it, they have always just been there. I was surprised how well I knew the lyrics to the songs from A Head Full Of Dreams cus it took me about 9 months after its release to finally listen to it, from how detached I had grown from the band. It's like they just find a way to worm their way into my head, like they're part of my identity. This film didn't tell me much I didn't know before, from when I was obsessed with them, but it was still cute to relive all of it. From a filmmaking point of view tho, I thought it was slightly messy, but I still really really loved it - my two favourite sequences were the transition between Chris talking about them being a worldwide success in 4 years time and then images of them headlining Glastonbury, and the Yellow sequence about them rising to the top of the charts with their very first single and how, to this day, people will still sing it at the top of their lungs. Those both gave me chills. The ending made me REALLY sad tho, what the hell??? I had no idea they had hit that part of their career where they feel like they're done, I really hope it isn't the end, and I certainly hope whatever album they make next is more to my liking than A Head Full Of Dreams. Either way, Coldplay will always be there for me, and I will always be there for Coldplay.

9/10

will i ever not be annoyed by this movie? probably not. 3rd time watching it and it still doesn't rock my boat. the screenplay is one of the worst in the mcu movies, sooo corny. them building their own villain is boring, because it doesn't take the story further, it's like a hiccup they had to pass by to continue their avenging of problems NOT caused by them (Thanos' attempts), but that doesn't make for a good movie (altho i will say i REALLY like the angle of the consequences of the Avengers' actions, that then builds up to Civil War, because it's important to understand they might be powerful but they still have to answer for their mistakes - maybe i'm slightly team Iron Man oops). Besides there's just so much melodrama in this movie, and I'm all for a little bit of emotion thrown into the action spectacle but please do it tastefully... don't have Natasha and Bruce suck face while a whole city is flying in the air, getting ready to drop and destroy half the human race like....

On the upside, I like some of the character development we get in this movie like Clint's, Natasha's AND Bruce's (but not the parts that involve one another). I love the twins, I LOVE Pietro SOOOO much, every time i watch this I can't help but be heartbroken for what he could have been in the future, especially cus Wanda without him just doesn't captivate me as much.

All in all it's exactly what a 7 means on this site: good. But it's an avengers movie ffs, avengers movies are supposed to be FANTASTIC. And this one will always make me sad because it was a waste of my favourite team of people ever.

7/10

This review may contain spoilers.

Bullet point review cus there’s too much nonsense in this film to even attempt at making a coherent text:

• Huge shoutout to Carloto Cotta for building a career on the shoulders of his uncanny resemblance to Cristiano Ronaldo (Diamantino and the Netflix show Elite are arguably his two most famous roles and they’re both Cristiano spoofs that somehow simultaneously nail the absurdity of the footballer’s public image and completely misrepresent and mock who he is as a man). Would absolutely love for the two of them to meet one day, or god forbid, for Cotta to play Cristiano in an actually serious and non-offensive biopic where he could go further than the airhead façade.

• Hated the characters of the sisters, they were excessively disgusting and abusive and their scenes made me uncomfortable.

• THAT MANUELA MOURA GUEDES SCENE BELONGS IN A MUSEUM. SO. GOOD. my favorite bit in the movie. I cried laughing.

• Hated what they did to the queer relationship between Lucia and Aisha. Highkey homophobic.

• The political subplot was a bit cringe. I wish it had been less in your face, but still pretty self-aware.

• The Portuguese hit show Por do Sol which has been the most unanimously loved portuguese television production since Morangos com Açucar or Aqui não há quem viva shares a lot of the same humor of Diamantino, just with better actors and a little bit more depth. But what is great about both is the Portuguese’s unmatched ability to make fun of themselves and to so completely and thoroughly understand the absurdity of our cultural landmarks (soaps, football, our crusader and colonial past, and the catholic church). I think we’re one of, if not the funniest people on Earth.

I loved this film, I thought it was so so beautiful and delicate but I felt the need to research reviews from transgender people because only they can truly say if the way Lili's story is depicted in this is respectful or not. The reviews were mixed, but most of them seemed to agree the time its set on justifies some of the mistakes in representing the transgender experience. Most also said the movie was based more off of the novel than Lili's actual diaries and that the novel itself already fictionalized some of the actual facts of Lili's life. Still, as loosely based as this might be on the real story of Lili Elbe's life it was still such an interesting watch, painful at times too, to think how hard it must have been before - and now, still - for transgender people to deal with how uncomfortable the bodies they were born in make them. At least now, they know what is going on, I don't think before they even had a name for what they were feeling.

Acting wise, I thought Redmayne and Vikander did a wonderful job, even if some of Redmayne's scenes seem to be bordering on caricatural. Technical wise, this film is beautiful, the colour scheme is so calming, the framing is so pretty some shots look like paintings themselves.

9/10

listen... LISTEN!!!! I know like every scene and act in this movie is predictable and cliché but clichés are clichés for A REASON!!!!!! I just left the cinema, and I might be on a bit of a high right now, but isn't that what movies are all about? I was so close to giving this a ten just because of how much I enjoyed myself, like I hadn't with a movie in a really long time... but the thought of putting a Creed movie, nay a Creed sequel, next to my other number 10s made me chill out a little and give it a 9 instead. But here's the thing, that training sequence?????????????? when he's running and he fucking falls to the ground and the music stops and Rocky tells him to get back up anD THEN HE DOES AND HE KEEPS RUNNING AND THE MUSIC STARTS BUILDING UP??????????? i wanna go rewatch that shit right now lmfaoo, it literally took my breath away, but then again I'm a sucker for sports movies, I really am, mostly because i'm a huge fan of competition and sports (even if not boxing, in particular) in real life. But that was far from being the only breathtaking scene in this movie, to be honest. My emotions were running high from start to finish.

On a shallower note... Michael B Jordan and Tessa Thompson are so fucking hot, it's disgusting.... they look so good together and their chemistry honestly jumps off the screen. So i'd like to thank Creed's casting director for this decision, and for making all my bisexual dreams come true. And on a serious note, MBJ was playing a heavyweight boxing champion, but he's becoming a heavyweight acting champion right in front of all of our eyes and I for one am enjoying the journey quite a lot. He really shows his worth in this film, for sure.

9/10

This movie was everywhere when it came out and I tend to not love anything that is too loved by every one else. I'm glad I didn't watch it all the way back in 2014 because I know I would have not given it the chance it deserves just literally out of spite. Instead, I'm glad it's January 2019 and I'm procrastinating from studying for the exam that I have tomorrow, and felt like watching something inspiring. Well, I couldn't have picked a better film.

I'm not gonna lie, I didn't like the first act very much, I thought the dialogue was too cheesy and cliché, the timings weren't quite right and Shailene and Ansel were very much still warming up to their roles. However, something changed for me during the Amsterdam trip . The film truly took on a life of its own, the message no longer had to be conveyed through forced dialogue, and finally showed through in the actions, the gestures, and the expressions of the characters, their relationships and their idea of self. Hazel and Augustus go from being just another cute couple in a REALLY sad love story like a gazillion stories we've seen before, to being truly special and real. The cliché bullshit just stops, or maybe they just finally settled in their roles well enough to not make it as cringey, or cringey at all. This film wasn't scared of taking risks, even though it was meant for a teen audience. Sure, it was romantic and beautiful and inspiring, but it did a good job of balancing that aspect of it with the bastard notion that we're all just going to f*cking die, and that we all have to learn to live with that fact. And that Hazel and Gus just had to learn to deal with it way sooner than anyone should have to.

Listen, maybe exam season has me feeling extra sensitive but this really spoke to me, that first act was the only reason I didn't give it a 10. Because the scene in Anne Frank's house where Hazel climbs all those stairs , god that scene alone is a 10 for me. It's also kinda great to see what Shailene and Ansel have done since this movie truly kicked off their careers, it gives me a weird sense of pride for them.

I guess, things that everyone loves, sometimes are actually good.

9/10

P.S.: who else was bothered by the fact Gus says in the eulogy he wrote for Hazel that at the hospital her hands were warm when in the "I love when you talk medical to me" scene they made a whole thing about her hands being freezing? Is it just something that isn't constant? I'd think it would be... Oh well!

I'm annoyed I didn't watch this movie in the setting and with the conditions it demanded to be watched in. I couldn't find good subtitles and because of that some of the dialogue was lost on me, I also watched it with a rather chatty friend - which is totally fine - but i just know this movie would have gotten to me hard had I watched it completely alone, completely focused, with my headphones on, and good subtitles.

Heath and Abbie are absolutely incredible in this, their characters' love for each other is what drives the story. Yes, they're drug addicts, and yes the movie is mostly about their struggle to get the next fix, sometimes their attempts to get clean, but they do it together, always. They never give up on one another and they're just so genuinely in love. Dan had the sweetest of hearts, he was just so genuinely good and loving to her. He was my favourite character between the two, but curiously Candy's was my favourite character arc. The way they introduced her anxiety and her mental disorders - beyond addiction - was just so interesting to see, and not really what you would expect from a movie like this. Her relationship with her mother is so nuanced and gives her character so much depth. The ending is superb and maybe the biggest act of love in the whole film. Maybe all along it wasn't the drugs they depended on, but each other.

9/10 (gosh I shall rewatch this again properly because I feel like it could be a 10 for me)

Holy shit, what a film! I gave the first one a 9/10 because the story didn't mean much to me on a personal level, but introduce a little mute immigrant boy whose entire family was murdered in cold blood and who still goes on to become one of the most powerful men in the United States and you have my heart. Vito's background story definitely gave this film an emotional edge the first one didn't have for me, and all my favourite films must make me at least slightly emotional. Michael is such a good character too, completely different from his father, much more ruthless, and yet much more vulnerable as well. His evolution from the first film is incredible to watch, as he becomes this cold, scary in his serenity crime lord, even though you will still catch a moment of weakness and nervousness here and there, which tells you he's not invincible either. The way he ends up completely alone and the way they parallel the ending with that scene with all the brothers at the dinner table discussing Michael's future, which he thought would be brighter and more commendable than that of his brothers', or even his father's, is so powerful.

Story telling and structure wise, I found this movie more compelling than the first. The time-jumps, the parallels, the origins of the family - all of it makes for a much more complete and immersive watching experience.

Technically, I also found the sequel more beautiful than the first installment, the cinematography was gorgeous.

All in all, I absolutely adored it.

10/10

This film, like Van Gogh's paintings are described in it, is most appealing to your senses. It's a vision, it's all consuming, There were moments that made me feel so calm, others that made me so anxious, others even made my head ache, and all of them solely because of the colours, the mise-en-scène, the juxtaposition of images, the music, the overlap of the audio, the shakiness of the camera. Technically, it's one of the most interesting, visually gorgeous and intense films I've ever watched.

I'm not usually a fan of films that get too experimental with the camera, or the editing, but in this film it worked perfectly because of its subject: Vincent Van Gogh whose mind was perturbed, and his paintings, that were some of the most beautiful art work ever created. And the way the film is made accompanies that, and him, brilliantly.

It was also a great combination of artistry and storytelling, because in the end, not only have you watched a painting in movement - because that's what this film feels like - but you actually learn so much about Vincent Van Gogh, which you don't usually get in films like these. They usually lose themselves in their attempt to make an experimental film and end up not telling you a story, but this movie does, and it does it through incredible dialogue too.

Dafoe is absolutely brilliant in it. His face is magnetic and really pulls you in.

8/10

Im conflicted. Might need to come back and edit this comment later because this is one of those movies that you only figure out what you really thought of it after some distance. Right now, like i said, i'm conflicted, because the same things that made me like it, weirdly made me not love it? Which doesn't make a lot of sense but people seem to praise the mix of genres in this film but for me, although that makes this film unique, surprising and captivating, it also spreads it out a bit all over the place, so much so it stops feeling concise and starts verging on a big mess. It's walking somewhere in the line that separates a successful attempt and a disastrous one. But one thing that cannot be taken away from it is the boldness to even attempt to make such a movie, and definitely the originality of it. Right now i'll give it a "great", time and maybe a second watch will tell if it becomes a solid 8, if it goes down to 7 or even goes up to 9.

8/10

edit!!!! saw it again: definitely a 9 but still think the ending falls a bit short

The premise for this trilogy is absolutely brilliant; the idea that in our world, our real world, comic books aren't just fiction, but based off of incredible people that do exist is brilliant.

In Unbreakable, Shyamalan presents this concept and proposes the idea of a superhero movie without the usual cheesiness of the genre, and he succeeds in its production, adding a shocking ending to complete one of the best superhero movies of all time.

In Split, the sobriety of the first instalment is replaced with the typical dramatics of the horror genre, still holding itself, however, due to the relative originality of combining it with the superhuman trope.

In Glass, the difference between the first two films of the trilogy becomes crystal clear and impossible to combine, making for a movie that is not only messy in its genre but also in its storytelling and plot, making the entire thing feel pretty pointless and forced. The grittiness and sombreness that made me love Unbreakable are, in Glass, completely destroyed to give way for dialogue, conflict and resolutions as cheesy as the cheapest possible blockbuster you can think of right now.

I can see how this is a story that needed to be told throughout three movies, but unfortunately Split and especially Glass spoiled the brilliance of Unbreakable, which will always work really well as a stand alone film, but will also forever be inevitably part of a not very good franchise.

Not my favourite. I love angst in love stories, I don't mind the uglier side of relationships, but not when it feels like the characters absolutely cannot stand each other. The arguments were too petty and too annoying and too cliché to actually build any sort of meaning or commentary beyond what we were given at face value. Yeah, alright, the movie proves love isn't a bed of roses, but it does so in an uninspired way in my opinion, then trying to salvage itself by throwing a few callbacks and clever dialogue about the relationship between love, life and time that all just mostly fall flat (even if there's some genuinely good moments in the midst of it all). Jesse and Celine work as a fleeting relationship, not as a long lasting one. In the other two films you could see they got on each other's nerves but it worked cus they were only in each other's presence for a brief period of time. This film wants so hard to be realistic, but there's nothing realistic about these two staying together for this long. The creator of this trilogy should have realised this worked better as a succession of one night stands.

This was one of the creepiest things i have ever watched, but also one of the most interesting documentaries. People who go into Casting JonBenet expecting a documentary about the murder case will come out of it completely disappointed and even angry that they wasted their time (as is proven by the comments left on this page). However, if you approach this film as a piece on how true crime stories, especially unsolved mysteries, impact not only the community closest to it, but media culture in general, it's an extraordinarily enlightening piece of cinema.

There has always been a weird fixation and interest in true crime stories, one i'm myself guilty of, mostly stemming from a regular person's inability to comprehend how someone can do such horrible acts. That's why cases like JonBenet Ramsey's become media circuses and cultural events that everyone knows/hears about. This documentary explores exactly just that: the myth that forms around an unsolved murder mystery, the urge everyone has to share theories and make sense of something so senseless and terrifying, and watching these people, most from the city the crime happened, all run wild with their conspiracies and their takes on it, going as far as sharing extremely personal stories, is fascinating, if also greatly uncomfortable.

Of course, to this premise, you have the added insanity natural to people who enjoy acting, and who enjoy pushing themselves to a place as dark as the mind of someone who'd be able to commit these atrocities. Great actors are praised for their performances of serial killers and other disturbing characters/people, but when you shine a light on the process of getting to that place and the motivations behind wanting to play one of those characters - thus reminding you over and over that these things actually happened and not letting you disconnect enough to enjoy and marvel at those performances - it becomes a really uncomfortable watching experience.

A lot of people interviewed in this documentary were weird themselves, but then we all know actors are all peculiar. If the director had chosen to just interview random people of the city of Boulder, the result would have probably been very different, but instead she took the very unique perspective of interviewing actors auditioning for the roles of this family, people who went into that studio with the predisposition to act as a murderer. When you think about how close these people are to the crime and then think about how willing they still were to dress as these people from their community and act out this horrendous set of events, you get this creepy feeling that makes the whole thing even worse (as if simply the story of the murder wasn't creepy enough). And that's why this documentary is so disturbing, but so weirdly brilliant. It's a think-piece and a social experiment on the impact of the culture of true crime mystery, it is NOT a documentary about simply the story of what happened that night.

This was beautifully done and for the first time I've left one of these documentaries feeling hopeful. It's not preachy and it places the weight of the solution on the true culprits - the big companies, the billionaires hoarding the world's resources for themselves and the world's leaders. Attenborough makes it clear that one of the most sustainable solutions to global warming is the successful redistribution of wealth, guaranteeing health, education and safety to all. Often times, documentaries on Planet Earth and the global warming annoy me because they seem to place the blame on people who barely have any control over their own lives, much else something as large scale as the Earth's climate. It's time we realise that as long as poverty and class inequality exist and the working class, which amounts for most of the world's population, is systemically underpaid and explored, no one will give a crap about becoming vegan or driving a bicycle. However, people who have more money than they, and their descendants, could spend in a lifetime, need to be truly pressured and social justice needs to be restored before we can even begin to dream of a future as bright as the one Attenborough optismitcally and refreshingly offers here.

Like, I understand people are angry that Sam Levinson’s ego is so fragile but isn’t every artist’s?

I don’t know where I stand in the identity politics discussion and Levinson projecting his own insecurities about writing for Black characters onto this film. I don’t know if I even need to form an opinion on that issue, or can just accept it doesn’t really have an answer.

All I really do know is that this film, and Zendaya particularly, made me feel everything. And as much as I like formulating an educated opinion, I can’t help but feel frustrated that time and time again people who just seem to hate everything that is popular out of spite ruin those experiences for me. I understand the issues people have raised against this film, it’s normal to instantly feel defensive when a piece is this critical over critic itself. I also know I am only now taking my baby steps in film studies, but if I don’t trust the very initial feeling a movie awakens in me on the first watch, then what exactly can I trust to form my opinions? Everyone else’s opinions?

Malcolm & Marie is an incessant fencing match between two incredible actors, with tantalising chemistry, with blocks of monologues that almost seem written for the theatre, but were uniquely elevated by the cinematic medium’s particularities. Take away everything you know about the director, look at the film just for itself, and if you still hate it, that’s fine, but I thought it was brilliant, and I hadn’t been as moved by a performance as I was by Zendaya in this for some time.


P.S.: honestly the only criticism i legitimately will not accept about this movie is how toxic the relationship is and how annoying the characters are... why do you want to see stories about happy relationships and stable people? isn’t the whole point of writing a story that there has to be a dramatic premise to drive it? what’s dramatic about two people who never argue and are happily together?

Gosh, I have so many mixed feelings. If on one hand I feel like I have just watched a cinematic masterpiece, with the cleverest, wittiest, most insightful dialogue, one of the most striking leading performances I’ve seen in a minute, and insane visuals. On the other, its subject matter is so sensitive and undefined that it makes it incredibly hard to decide whether it tackled it in the right or wrong way.

Queerness is all about breaking free from heteronormative norms and “walls”. Putting a label on Hedwig shouldn’t be a priority whatsoever because the entire point of their character is to inhabit a space free of rules and categories. However, watching this film without further research gets more complicated because there is an inherent focus on gender and genitals throughout that murks the waters a little bit when it comes to what messages it is trying to convey about the transgender experience. It’s purposefully ambiguous which means whatever perspective you want to assume you will find the good and you will find the bad. Right now, I’m in the middle.

Regardless, there’s no denying its pure cinematic achievements and the fact I had a great fucking time watching it. Also - that music.

This film to me is more of an exercise on the ethical limits of documentary filmmaking than anything else.

Is it a fantastic, piercing, impactful piece of cinema? Absolutely.

Is it technically original and attempts to bring something new (or at least less overly done) to the table? Also true.

What is its message? One gets the sense that it is criticising its subject matter, mostly because it takes the perspective of the cow. But in reality, its objective observational style of filmmaking is mostly non-dogmatic, and each will take from it what best aligns with what they already mostly believed in before watching it. That is - animals lovers will think the film uncovers the dairy industry’s horrors; radical animal rights activists will revolt at the filmmaker’s inertia and lack of intervention to save the cow it follows; spectators which are neutral to the cause will mostly assume a “it is what it is” stance; and of course, anti-vegans won’t see anything wrong with what is shown (after all, look -they’re even letting the cows roam free for a little bit!).

If you’re a film fan or scholar you can have any of the above opinions on the subject matter, but you will also leave Cow with additional intelectual contemplation on what exactly the role of a documentarian is supposed to be. Is it okay for the director not to intervene for the sake of objective/neutral filmmaking or is it exploitive and self-serving to :asterisk_symbol:spoiler:asterisk_symbol: just stand by and do nothing as you watch a cow get shot in the head in the name of art?

I've never had such a complicated relationship with a movie in my life. First of all, i've never had higher expectations for a movie in life, i've never wanted to love a movie so bad, and i've never been so anxious about a movie before. That's why after my first watch, because it was just SO different from previous marvel movies, I was quite disappointed. I was sad over it being the end, I was sad about the deaths, but i was also sad about not loving it as much as i wanted to. I've just done my second rewatch today and as much as it's not at all close to being my favourite mcu film of all time, i've made my peace with all the things I didn't like about it as just took as what it's meant to be: an epic farewell to the mcu as we know it, to the team that I fell in love with all those years ago. Goddamn it, i'm gonna miss them, i am going to miss them SO much. Will take a long time to recover from this one, that is if i ever will.

Thank you, Avengers. Thank you, Tony. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Natasha. Thank you, Clint. Thank you, Thor. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Marvel.

9/10

Out of all the hailed directors of the modern era of cinema (the Kubricks and Scorseses and Tarantinos) Coppola has been the one that to me, has most successfully lived up to his incredible hype. Of course, I haven't watched his weaker efforts, apart from The Godfather part III, but if I've watched other classics by other directors, often described as masterpieces, and ended up underwhelmed, with Coppola that hasn't happened. His three sensations (The Godfather Part I, The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now) have met every single one of my expectations and are all completely worthy of the masterpiece title. Apocalypse Now in particular was surprising and enthusing from start to finish. I found every single shot of the movie breathtakingly beautiful and the editing was some of the best I've ever seen. The soundtrack is maybe the greatest of all time, and the story, whilst not original, is a take I had not yet seen on the Vietnam war where through a mission against someone on his own "team" we discover the gruesome reality and inhumanity of the conflict. The Americans often call the locals "savages" but time and time again we are shown that they're the ones who do barbaric things. I loved it, and just like both Godfathers it has immense rewatch potential and I will certainly be watching it again.

Also, I guess I should say I watched the theatrical release and it worked really well for me. I see people in the comments saying it's too long, so I'm happy I chose to watch the shorter one, as I fully thought it was the perfect length.

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!

I'm definitely bias and haven't even watched that many concert films in my life, so I don't really know how to review them without focusing solely on how much I love or don't love the artist. Well, I love LOVE Taylor Swift. She's the most talented artist in pop music currently, and note that I say artist - not performer. There's definitely a difference. And as much as this film shows Taylor the performer, the moments that stuck most with me were the acoustic performances, that really is her element, that's when her songs truly shine through, as they should, for the masterpieces they are (All Too Well... i mean...) and that's what sets her apart from most acts in today's comercial music industry. That being said, the major, epic, choreography, special effects filled performances were still really enjoyable and had me singing as loud as I could. Every word in every song has a weight of its own and it's amazing to see how different the world Taylor creates around each one is from the one you create in your own mind when listening to her albums. I had already absolutely loved her 1989 tour film and this one wasn't any different. I hope one day I can live them in person and not just experience them through a screen.

10/10

This is such a charming film and story, with a great love story and one of the most iconic protagonists of all time. It's just really sweet, and it made me so happy when watching it. That said, I'm so torn between giving it a 9 or an 8 because I'm soooo in love with the movie up until the moment where they sleep together, but everything that happens after that felt weird and Paul's whole "you belong to me" thing was incredibly off-putting, but I guess you have to try and contextualise these movies within the time they were made. I can't help but feel like he had a weird personality change tho, from caring and understanding, to possessive and unkind. It reminds me of that typical male character trope where they're only nice to women so they can get them naked, and if they don't put out, they turn gross and angry. But, I guess, if you try to look at it from the perspective of Holly being scared of love, because she has never truly experienced it before, and if you interpret "you belong to me" more as "you belong with me" or "we belong together", which I genuinely think was the intention in the film, then the weird attitude and slightly unnerving ending can be forgiven. I'll just have to see how I feel about it after a while.

“I've heard that there's a kind of bird without legs that can only fly and fly, and sleep in the wind when it is tired. The bird only lands once in its life... that's when it dies.”

Each person will come out of this film with a different interpretation for this quote, for me the bird symbolises those who are too terrified of feeling anything real, and so spend their whole lives distracting themselves with anything that will disconnect them from the ground, because they know if they ever come back down, the pain will be too great to bare.

In the first two acts of the film, we see the protagonist attempt to drown the grief that comes from not knowing who his parents are with flings with women (that he never allows to become anything real), sex and occasional violence. It’s only when his adoptive mother finally tells him where his birth mother is that he finally allows himself to face that hurt, which ultimately gets him killed. Like his adoptive mother said, all his life he used not knowing his parents as an excuse for “years of running wild” (like the bird that always flies), but the minute he’d know their identity he would no longer have an excuse for his behaviour and, much like the bird, would be forced to finally ground himself, face his complicated feelings and grow up.

Wong’s ability to explore such complicated human emotions through the story of a man and that specific metaphor is wonderful.

No one does atmosphere, nostalgia and longing quite like the Chinese filmmaker and Days of Being Wild is no exception. The beautiful, intriguing and often suffocating mise-en-scène, the delicious score, and the tantalising use of colour and light make this film yet another dreamy escape for hopeless romantics who just want to understand the pain in their hearts a little better, or rather sit with it for an hour and a half.

The ending feels out of place, but the fact that it eventually functioned as a link into his later film In The Mood For Love, makes the unofficial Love Trilogy all the more fun to experience.

It’s a good movie, it’s well made, it’s emotional, Will Smith and Jaden Smith are incredible and I understand that it’s a true story, but the message this is trying to sell makes me sick. “Hey he did it, so if you can’t you’re just not working hard enough!!!! Hey this Will Smith character slept on a public bathroom’s floor to make his dreams come true and you can’t even leave your parents house haha you loser!!!!”. No. Absolutely Not. The American Dream is a fucking joke and this revolting idea that if we sacrifice our wellbeing and submit our last shred of human decency to the system we will be rewarded makes me sick to my stomach. No one should EVER have to be homeless, no matter how lazy, dumb, sick, WHATEVER, you are.

The main character keeps quoting the Declaration of Independence and how every man has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - then the whole film goes on to show just how capitalism denies those rights to thousands (the lines at the shelter were chilling) - only to then wrap up by feeding the audience the lie that it’s possible to achieve happiness and that if you haven’t, you’re just not working hard enough - the dozens of people at those homeless shelters are just not working hard enough!!!! This film is capitalist propaganda and I’m very happy for the real-life guy who got his happy ending, but I just wish he wasn’t the exception to the rule.

Right so this was exactly the type of episode that had been missing for this entire season. This is the type of insanity, fun and sexiness that made me fall in love with this show in the first season, and that was severely lacking in this one thus far (the opera episode was a step in the right direction). The theme of death by fame and subsequent invisibility of the artist and the way they compared the romantic aspects of it to the negative sides of it - Amherst's black community's very real and very painful invisibility and lack of political voice - was brilliant. The party scenes at the barn were soooo good, Austin being able to see Emily was such a pleasing surprise (i'd love to read theories about it) and Wiz Khalifa (the king of Season 1) finally returning as Death was just the cherry on top.

Lastly, I'm a huge fan of the Emily x Sue relationship but I don't even mind that last scene because it's done SO well and I love Sue going completely crazy/reckless and showing a bit of a mean streak, my girl's been too complacent her entire life and Emily has clearly been dismissing her lately.