so im just supposed to go on with my life after this?????????
EDIT: upon rewatch, I believe the open bar and pageantry of the premiere enabled me to put on goggles that shielded me from the trainwreck that is this film. Rian Johnson is a sorry excuse for a writer. It will probably be retconned at least 5 times in episode 9.
World Premiere Review: Vague, Spoiler-Free Edition
It was amazing. It still does nostalgic fan service, but nowhere near what Episode 7 or Rogue One felt like. It feels like its own film. It gets a little slow and repetitive in the last half of the first third of the film, but after the major show down in the middle of the film, it's non-stop action that's brilliantly paced. GO SEE IT!
Sorry Angelina, you're in the past now.
Alicia Vikander is phenomenal in this movie, and I appreciate the italian version of the movie for not dubbing her "screams" and "moans" because they are fantastic and add to an already adrenaline pumping movie.
The movie is the same as the first reboot game on the "next" gen, personally I did not play it, but I did play the second one and if they are going to make the next movie the same as the game, it's gonna be even greater!
This cinematic reboot is a rollercoaster. Lara's ability to come out of situation is always a bittersweet taste of disbelief that makes you love it even more. But, in this movie they took a nice step back to her and so we get to see a more inexperienced Lara. Because of this, every failed step doesn't look... "fake" as it did (in my opinion) with the original Jolie movies where she was a badass from starters, feared and known by everyone and still went on about and made stupid mistakes which didn't make sense really.
I gotta say that if you let yourself be immersed, the suspense in some of the scenes is thick and palpable. The line between mythos and reality is thin, but it develops perfectly near the end without resulting boring or monotonous.
Regarding every other aspect of cinematography: I have to say, some of the CGI felt a bit cheap, but usually is surmounted by the amount of action the movie delivers, sound editing and engineering was on point, note that there aren't really big, romatic or thought-provoking photografical shots, but it's to be expected in an action movie.
Alicia Vikander is perfect for the role. I absolutely loved her for the entire runtime and she honestly kept my interest up entirely on her own.
I don't know if Square Enix is to be thanked for the level of quality and "textuality" of who Lara Croft is and what Tomb Raider is about, but I think it's a safe bet and I hope it stays this way.
Please if you have the choice, watch the movie in english, it might sound creepy or weird, but Alicia's screams are fuckin fire in this movie, it gives depth and dignity to the struggle of a character that is supposed to be strong.
"Not everything is fleeting."
Indescribably beautiful in every way. Sciamma knows exactly when to linger and exactly when to let go. This is a film that is in complete control. It doesn’t just depict the longing, the love, the heartbreak; it gives the audience permission to experience these feelings with the film. It allows us into these moments in such delicate and masterful ways, that we are swept up into the romance along with Marianne and Héloïse.
Its interesting how many shots in this movie could exist in the latest artsy horror film released by A24. But in the context of this film, they don’t horrify the audience; they haunt us. They haunt us both despite and because of their beauty. They haunt us in the same way as Orpheus’ last goodbye to Eurydice.
"Turn around."
Finally, a good sequel. Good god the animation, it's so beautiful. And the action was so smooth. Also, Pixar better gives us a short movie about Edna babysitting Jack-Jack.
It starts with slow pace but it's getting better and better.Plot is really special and the idea well excetuted.I loved Blunt's perfomance she was just for this role.
I would expect a better final scene but overall i am very satisfied with the result and i suggest to see this tense thriller.7.7/10 from me hope you enjoy your watch! :)
I watched this with one of my friends from Uni and I am still reeling from it many hours later. It's iconic, life giving, and everything I never knew I needed to see on a big screen. I laughed so hard I cried, and I cried so much my face needed a grade a certifiable ShamWow to clean it up. Maybe I'm too sentimental, maybe I'm still feeling the high from this film, but it is a grade A romcom drama that gets what being a part of this community is like and it is well worth the watch. You can tell it was a creation of love, and whether you're part of the community or not I am sure you can appreciate and enjoy this film.
[8.2/10] It’s easy to become desensitized to violence on the screen. Superheroes can pummel hordes of faceless bad guys, or each other. Jedi can leap into lightsaber fights from hear to the edge of the galaxy. And slapstick comedy can turn events that would cause untold pain in real life into cartoony hilarity.
But we don’t tend to think about when people become desensitized to violence not because of the images they’ve seen or the context in which they’re presented, but rather because it’s an everyday part of their lives, something they don’t enjoy or relish, but no more question or find out of the ordinary than they would bad weather.
I, Tonya, then, is a film about what it is to expect abuse in your life, both physical and emotional, to the point that you no longer question it, or even fully recognize it. It depicts Tonya Harding as someone who has heard so many times that she doesn’t measure up, that she isn’t good enough, that she’ll never amount to anything (often with physical reminders to accentuate these put downs) that she accepts any abuse in exchange for even the prospect that someone will appreciate her, will respect her, will love her.
The most devastating line in film comes in one of the montages about the early tumult in the marriage between Tonya and her husband Jeff, where she rationalizes his domestic violence away by reasoning, “My mom loves me, and she hits me.” It’s a sad, but understandable equivalence from someone who’s known nothing else, going from one abusive family relationship to another.
The grand achievement of the film is the way that it manages to approach these dark events in a manner that’s both incisive and funny. It doesn’t skimp on the ridiculousness of the world of professional figure skating, or on the shaggier side of this collection of nudniks each trying to conquer the world in their own way, but it doesn’t shy away from or compartmentalize the darker underbelly of all that lunacy either.
Part of what makes it stomachable is that we get most of the film in the form of cobbled-together recollections from Tonya and the other players, with plenty of fourth wall-breaking commentary and voice over to add a layer of cutting or knowing commentary onto these events. That device allows the film to be at a remove when it needs to, giving the audience a chance to reflect on what’s happening rather than forced to be a part of it.
But when we do feel it, it’s through Tonya’s eyes, and for Tonya, violence, disappointment, and shaming are a matter of fact thing. That’s the soft tragedy that winds its way through the film. Horrid incident after horrid incident befalls Tonya, but she seems to take it in stride, because it’s all she’s ever known, until those moments accumulate and accumulate until they’ve taken away the thing she cares most about, the thing that gave her a chance to escape that life.
That shame is personified by Tonya’s mother, LaVona, a profane battleaxe who browbeats her preternaturally talented daughter deeper and deeper into the sport. It’s a powerhouse performance from the inimitable Allison Janney, and character aided both by Janney’s stellar acting and some choice moments in the script.
It would be easy to make LaVona a pure monster, with how she degrades her daughter at every turn and resorts to physical violence and cruel stunts when she doesn’t get her way. But in scenes where she tells Tonya that she sacrificed their relationship to make Tonya great, she becomes comprehensible, though not laudable, as all great villains should be. And there’s that twinkle in Janney’s eye, that sincerity she can muster, that gives the audience just enough to wonder if LaVona means it when she tells her daughter that she’s on her side, even when she’s surreptitiously recording her in search of a scoop.
That moment is a the whole film in microcosm, a story of people seeming to welcome Tonya, to give her the attention and affection she hopes for, only to tear it away from her. The film’s nod to this is a tad overwritten, but those are also the terms in which it interrogates celebrity. Beyond LaVona, beyond Jeff, Tonya wants to be embraced by the world, and for one shining moment, her talent makes her the darling she always wanted to be.
But then, the scandal hits. An incident she may or may not have been involved with comes to consume her career and reputation, and after coming so close, after having her all-too-brief moment in the sun, she becomes a laughing stock and a punching bag, in a country of late night comedians and tabloid headline writers who help set the stage for people to either groan or titter when hearing her name. The world acts as her mother and husband did, however unwittingly, with her desperate for approval and appreciation, and chasing it until she’s smacked down into her place once more.
That sense of Tonya having overstepped her bounds is also a palpable theme in the film. There’s a steady sense of how a combination of classism and sexism hindered her at every turn. Skating is (or at least was) a sport where women were expected to act a certain way, where competitors were expected to uphold a certain spirit of grace and genteelity. Tonya met none of those criteria. She was more athletic than graceful, a woman of poverty rather than refinement, and the way the staid gatekeepers refused to let her in for this is one more misfortune visited upon her.
This all makes I, Tonya sound far more grim that it is. There is a Coen Bros. quality to the film, where a bunch of small time, bumbling crooks try to pull off a caper and fall on their faces, while laughing at the absurdity and darkness bundled up with that. The script is smart and funny, with plenty of razor sharp lines and wry observations that work on multiple levels. And the shots and sequences of Tonya’s performances on the ice capture the sense of power and achievement, using the camera as her dance partner and greatest champion, showing a talent that cannot be denied to witness, even if it can be denied on score cards.
And after all of that denial, all of that rejection, all of those painful stumbles, the final scene highlights her brief but headline-grabbing boxing career. After all, that sort of physical violence is all she knows, the irony being that she doesn’t even understand the outpouring of support when Nancy Kerrigan is “hit once.” After her lifetime of violence, Tonya is too desensitized to it to comprehend what the big deal is, or where the similar sympathy is for her when all manner of authority: from her mother, to the powers that be of the skating establishment, to the police, don’t seem to care.
There’s a recurring leitmotif in I, Tonya where Tonya constantly denies that anything is her fault. There’s the implication that she’ll devolve into self-sabotage or give less-than-her-best effort and yet pass the buck for any misstep onto a conspiracy or a bias or something else that she’s not responsible for.
And yet, the only thing she publicly accepts guilt for is the one thing for which she’s truly blameless -- the people in her life. When Tonya makes her public apology, she says she had no prior knowledge of the attack, but apologize for surrounding herself with people who did and would. It’s those people -- her mother who derided her and primed her for another abuser like her husband -- who helped shape Tonya into the person so susceptible to pursuing any manner of affection and attention, while not fully comprehending the gravity of the risk and pain to be inflicted on her in the process of seeking it out.
I, Tonya is not your standard biopic. It is dark but funny, sympathetic but not hagiographic, and narrow but fulsome. It presents the story of a young woman so inured to abuse, so used to its awful presence, that she hardly recognizes it anymore, until it keeps from the things she wants most.
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Fear Street Part One: 1994’:
Lemme tell you… I loved it! It was nostalgic. It was an homage to so much that has come before (that intro had ‘Scream’ written all over it). But it also had a hefty dose of originality. Great characters you cared about. It took risks. It surprised you. And it was a LOT more mature than I expected it to be. I loved the books way back when, and this made me wanna read them again. Bravo.
I LOVED the LGBT twist in the beginning! Did NOT expect that person to be Sam. Solid execution.
It had a bit of a Hocus Pocus vibe to me, which made the character deaths and the paths into “Rated R” territory that much more effective. It was a weird and welcomed mix.
Bonus Thought: I legit can’t wait for the next one. Super invested.
HAROLD, THEY'RE LESBIANS!
I feel this film was more heartwarming and sweet than the first. Great cast, great special effects that don't even feel like effects,
I really struggled giving this an honest opinion. I think this focused more on special effects rather than the horror aspect. I loved the original It from 1990. And I also love the novel very much but this doesn't really do it for me. It was a good movie yes but too much computer special effects rather than just makeup spx. Anothing thing that annoyed me was Pennywise's death. It looked cheaply made. It could've been made sooo much better, but I understand how hard that would've been with their vision. One last thing that was awesome was Stephen King's cameo in the shop. It made me feel very comfortable to see him. Oh and let me add that the actors are perfect, they really succeeded with finding good actors that has a similar look as the children.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a movie that has its pride flag in the right place, but where's its heart?
A stellar cast and competent directing make this tale of a young woman sent to a Christian gay conversion camp a worthwhile watch. Like any LGBT film that escapes clichés and portrays members of the community in a favourable light, this film is easy to recommend.
That said, the story left me wanting more. More anti gay conversion therapy, more passion, more gayness, more youth, more quirkiness, more humanity, and more Sasha Lane! I'll probably re-watch this film when it's released on blu-ray, and probably still be left wanting more.
Sensitive depiction of being gay and in love whilst in high school. I'm sure many people will relate to the raw emotion on display in this quietly affecting film.
I was a little off put about the style of storytelling. Because it was more of an improv around a theme (which included testimonials and running discussions) I found the pace was uneven. However, out of the jumble of words there did emerge some nice relational bits. I prefer scripted pieces. FIgure out what you want your piece to say, and then craft your film around it. Don't leave it to your actors to do all the heavy lifting. I give this film a 6 (fair) out of 10. [Improvisational Cinema]
''My name is not Sasha. My name's Anne. And I'm totally gay.''
The 1990 version of this story was very dated so naturally this one topped everything they did when it comes to special effects. They made it much more intens. Amazing cast! Those kids stole the show and Bill Skarsgard is an excellent choice to take over the iconic role of Pennywise.
Not as scary as I expected, but the good development of the storytelling kicked it up a notch.
