Starts very strong but the narrative weakens as the show progresses
Starting as a grim and gritty police procedural, the show takes a left turn in the third episode, before diving head-first into the supernatural in the sixth and seventh. And do these two tones mix well? Kind of. The early episodes are easily the strongest, and as the hokey horror elements start to take over, the foreboding portentousness of those beautifully constructed episodes gives way to Stephen King-isms. Relatable themes such as guilt and the paralysis of grief are dropped in favour of larger (and thus more abstract) issues such as the infectious nature of evil and the ability of ordinary people to band together in extraordinary circumstances (as I said, it's King-101). But for all that, and despite the not entirely successful mixing of genres, I enjoyed the show. I hadn't read the novel, and so I was genuinely invested in finding out where all of everything led. And even though the journey (the early stages, in particular), proved more interesting than the destination, it was a journey that I don't regret taking.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/2jhPy5
An excellent examination of a wrongful conviction, a virtual cult, and the insanity that connects them
The second season of The Devil You Know isn't as good as the first, however, it's still an impressive documentary. The third episode in particular is brilliantly done, really making you feel just how badly manipulated Kelly Pingilley was and how much her friends miss her. Tightly paced, very well edited, with an excellent selection of Shriner's voice-overs and Steve's video clips, the season is definitely worth your time.
I loved it, but this is the definition of "not for everyone"
Running for 13 hours across the course of 10 episodes (which range in length from 79 minutes to 23 minutes), Refn regards it as "a 13-hour movie" and insists that it is not a television show (he regards television and streaming as different mediums, and TOTDY aired on Amazon's Prime Video streaming service). Either way, whether show or film, I loved it. The aesthetic is exceptional, the quirks are pure surrealism, the humour is spot on, the violence (particularly the sexual violence) is sudden and barbaric, but never gratuitous or pointless, and the themes are fascinating. This isn't going to turn a single person into a Refn fan. Indeed, it will probably alienate some of his more casual fans, as it tests the limits of what even the most artistically open-minded viewer will watch on their television screens. That said, if you're on-board with it, you're in for an unforgettable ride.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1UImc9
Terrifying and sobering – as exceptional a piece of television narrative as you're ever likely to see
Equal parts political deconstruction and painstaking recreation of what it must have been like to live through the worst nuclear disaster in history, the show presents a terrifying, nightmare vision of how bad things can get when hard scientific facts are made subservient to political agendas, and governments strive to undermine not only scientific expertise but the very nature of truth itself (the Soviet Union was a big fan of "alternative facts" long before the GOP). Chernobyl begins and ends by asking the viewer to ponder the cost of cumulative nation-wide lies. However, it's just as interested in celebrating the heroes as it is assigning blame, and in that sense, it has an extraordinary sense of humanism.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1LGDBb
This being True Detective, there is a lot to praise – the aesthetics are top-notch, the sense of place is palpable, the acting is off-the-chart brilliant. And there are some interesting themes – racial tension, journalistic ethics, marriage, fatherhood, the shadow of the Vietnam War, old age. But this being Pizzolatto unfettered, there's a lot to criticise too – the glacial pace, the under-written female roles, the cod-philosophy, the (toxic) machismo, the clichés, the dreadful finale. The fact is that Pizzolatto (a novelist by trade) needs an exceptional director to turn his ideas into something resembling brilliance, to imbue his relatively quotidian script with a portentousness well beyond the written word. He needs a director with a keen enough vision to mask the fact that his scripts are actually pretty by-the-numbers. Season three illustrates this beyond all doubt. Season one had the vision of Cary Joji Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation, Jane Eyre, Maniac) who brilliantly directed all eight episodes, presenting a very thin story by way of such unforgettable and unsettling imagery that it made everything feel deeper and more profound than it really was. Season three has such a vision for two episodes; the first two, which are directed by Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin, Green Room, Hold the Dark), who was also a showrunner until he abruptly departed after clashing with Pizzolatto (look out for a stunningly beautiful night-time shot of a search party walking through a field, torches moving in front of them – Sauliner gives the image a haunting fairy-tale-like quality). After these two episodes, directorial duties were split between Pizzolatto himself and journeyman TV director Daniel Sackheim. Season three without Saulnier (or Fukunaga) isn't as bad as season two, nowhere near, but it's still very weak, telling a threadbare story that it stretches out well beyond breaking point only to reward us with the limpest and most poorly written dénouement you can possibly imagine.
For my complete review, please visit: https://www.themoviedb.org/review/60599136a6c1040075536963
A dark and well-made show about the effects of psychological trauma, but the bifurcated narrative is a significant mistake
Dublin Murders is an eight-part series that adapts the first two novels in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series – In the Woods (2007) and The Likeness (2008). And herein lies the show's biggest problem. French's series is pseudo-anthological in design; each novel has a different protagonist, and although there are common characters across all of the stories, each plot is wholly self-contained. In writing Dublin Murders, Sarah Phelps has made the strange decision to present the plots of the first two novels as happening concurrently, with each case bleeding slightly into the other. This doesn't even remotely work, with the events of The Likeness never feeling like anything other than a half-baked B-plot that serves only to detract from the far superior material in the A-plot. It's a maddening decision, as In the Woods could have made a superb five or six-part series, but instead we've got an over-long eight-parter with a ton of what feels like completely extraneous fat. Nevertheless, there is much to laud here; the acting, the cinematography, production design, and art direction, the editing and directing, and, when focusing on the first novel, much of Phelps' writing, which admirably captures the thematic and tonal essence of French's 500-page interiorised narrative.
For my complete review, please visit: https://www.themoviedb.org/review/603536ac0d2944003e5afccc
A sarcastic posthumanist Dracula won't be to everyone's taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed this unique take on the Count
Running a hefty 270 minutes (divided into three episodes of 90 minutes each), the series seeks to capture the tone of the original novel, if not necessarily the plot, whilst also attempting to rescue vampires from the angst-ridden millennial post-Twilight position in which they find themselves. Extremely funny in places, extremely disturbing in others, this is probably the best small screen adaptation since Philip Saville's superb Count Dracula (1979). There are some problems, and fans of the novel have taken especial (and not entirely unjustified) umbrage with the unexpected narrative shift in the last episode, but all in all, helped in no small part by an immense central performance, I thoroughly enjoyed this version.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1yvffL
A darkly magical realist re–telling that definitely isn't for kids
Very much eschewing the sweetness and levity of previous adaptations, the show takes itself very seriously (perhaps too much so), interrogating not just such standard fare as the exploitative nature of capitalism and the illogicality of certain Christmas traditions, but actually deconstructing the thematic foundations of the novella itself (especially the dénouement). It definitely isn't for everyone, and fans of the original have taken issue with changes such as the reformulation of Scrooge from misanthrope to villain, the depiction of child sexual abuse, the joyless nature of the Cratchit family, the 'reason' why the spirits come to Scrooge, and the relative absence of Scrooge's nephew Fred. And certainly, some of these complaints are justified. On the other hand, the show looks amazing, it's anchored by an extraordinary central performance, and the attempt to ground the whimsical nature of the original in something more akin to psychological realism is, for the most part, very well-handled. Good lord though, the last 30 seconds are spectacularly ill-advised.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1xCTlf
Give it time and you'll be rewarded
Nelson "Nelly" Rowe (Lennie James) is a popular self-styled womaniser living on a Deptford council estate in London, whose life is turned upside down when he is arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his thirteen-year-old daughter Jody (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), whom he hasn't seen in ten years. After convincing the police of his innocence, and frustrated with the way the case is progressing, Nelly decides to take matters into his own hands and try to track down Jody himself.
For my complete review, please visit: https://www.themoviedb.org/review/5caadc0ac3a3683f4a633e07
Exceptional in every way; thematically rich, aesthetically breathtaking, and emotionally devastating
Watchmen is an exceptionally good show. By default, of course, there will be fans of the comic who'll dislike it on principle. There will also be those who accuse it of pandering to a liberal PC agenda (look at the negative (and frankly, hilarious) review bombing on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes), and there'll be those who simply don't like the idea of a Watchman TV show with a black woman at its centre. Make no mistake, however, this show has been put together by people who know, appreciate, love, and understand the comic. Thematically complex, aesthetically breathtaking, brilliantly acted, Watchmen is an exceptional piece of television.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1mk9ch
An aesthetic showcase that's completely uninterested in human beings (and for the love of God, what does Christopher Nolan have against decent sound mixing?)
It's undeniably fascinating to see a tent pole Hollywood production engaging with issues such as entropy, thermodynamics, reversibility and irreversibility, time's arrow, the grandfather paradox, and T-symmetry, all the while keeping proceedings housed firmly within the spy genre (it's a Bond movie in all but name). Indeed, one of the film's central questions is especially noteworthy – if what and who we remember from our past defines who we are in our present, do things that haven't happened to us yet also speak to our identity? Do our future actions determine who we are as much as our past actions? It's a fascinating question. And one with which Nolan does precisely nothing. However, the film's main problems aren't related to the squandered existential potential, the much ballyhooed complexity, the puzzle-like structure, the philosophical musing, or the thematic similarity to Nolan's previous work. Rather, they are more fundamental, existing almost entirely at a structural level (although some of the performances don't help matters, nor does the abysmal sound mixing). The film looks incredible, the practical effects in the action scenes are extraordinarily mounted, the cinematography is stunning, and the editing is superb, but there simply isn't anything of note under the shiny veneer. It's a film with virtually no interest in human beings.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1lbO1H
A balanced overview of an unprecedented case
Attempting to tell a more comprehensive story than the sensationalist narrative adopted by the media at the time, which was basically "evil devil woman secretly bullies vulnerable boyfriend to death so she can get sympathy", the series expands on some of the lesser known details of the case; the bizarre, almost entirely online nature of the relationship; his four prior suicide attempts; her months of constantly talking him out of suicide; their mutual mental illnesses, which includes her own suicide attempt, an eating disorder, and crippling loneliness; a theory about notions of self-identity, revolving around, of all things, the TV show Glee; a legal system which finds itself out of step with the digital era in which we live; a psychiatrist of questionable merit and his controversial theory; and the ramifications of a ground-breaking legal ruling. Looking at issues of technology, mental health, the ethicality of prescribing powerful SSRIs to teenagers, a reductionist media that pushes an easy-to-digest narrative based on familiar tropes and themes at the expense of the more multifaceted, complex, and uncomfortable reality, and, of course, whether one person can be held legally responsible for another's suicide, the show doesn't so much take a side as work to remind viewers that more than one side exists. And although there are some notable problems, it does a pretty decent job overall.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1gIs17
Initially a pitch-perfect homage/parody of summer-camp slasher movies, AHS/1984 subsequently morphs into something of an amalgamation of a ghost story, a true-crime thriller, a study of serial killing, and a multi-character tale of redemption, giving us one of the coldest and most ferocious villains the show has ever seen. For me, it's the best season of American Horror Story since the exceptional second season, Asylum. However, there's no denying it's a divisive beast – the type of highly stylised story that'll have as many detractors as admirers. AHS purists probably won't be overly impressed. For one thing, it's a dark and very, very, very camp comedy before it's a thriller or a horror. For another, it leans so heavily into '80s clichés and slasher movie tropes that it's practically on its side. On the other hand, it's consistently hilarious, it's a brilliant parody of slasher movies, it doesn't take itself even remotely seriously (although it does have something to say about the media's commodification of serial killers), and despite the ridiculousness of the plot and the twists layered on top of twists layered on top of twists, it actually manages to elicit quite a bit of empathy for a couple of characters who were introduced as one-dimensionally irredeemable. And the soundtrack, wardrobe, and hairstyles have more '80s cheese and excess than you could ever imagine.
For my complete review, please visit: https://www.themoviedb.org/review/5f1296bbd46537003761a415
A fine overview of a pivotal figure in American socio-political history and an insightful piece of cultural anthropology
Anchored by a superb central performance, and built upon a fascinating aesthetic design and wide-ranging thematic concerns, the show does an excellent job of arguing that Fox's onscreen reactionary politics and the behind-the-scenes culture of sexual harassment and xenophobia were simply two sides of the same pernicious coin. Depicting a man who believed (correctly, as it turned out) in the profitability of fudging the distinction between reporting the facts and offering opinions on them, the show illustrates the damage such an ideology can have on society as a whole. Does it tell us anything new, anything one can't glean from reading a decent Ailes biography? No, not really. Is it biased, with its own agenda? Yes, absolutely. Is it subtle? Hell, no; not even a little. However, it's well-written, brilliantly acted, extremely well-mounted, and, for the most part, it avoids caricature. All things considered, it's a very fine overview of a pivotal figure in American socio-political history and an insightful piece of cultural anthropology, showing how one man's paranoia reshaped a nation and birthed an ideological chaos from which the country has yet to emerge.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1eVyhN
An engaging if not especially convincing series
the show's focus is the so-called Smiley Face Murder Theory as developed by retired NYPD detectives Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, and Dr. Lee Gilbertson, criminal justice and sociology professor at St. Cloud State University. In essence, they believe that over 40 young men found dead in bodies of water across the American Midwest from the late 1990s to the present did not accidentally drown, as ruled by law enforcement, but were the victims of a highly organised group of serial killers operating in cells and co-ordinating their activities via the dark web. In every case, the victim is a male in his early 20s, always Caucasian, and often either an above-average athlete, a promising academic, or both. Aside from the similarity of victimology and the fact that in every case, the young man was out drinking with friends when he disappeared, the common element across 22 of the cases is the presence of graffiti depicting a smiley face near locations where Gannon and his team hypothesise the bodies were dumped into the water. Hunt for Justice examines six such cases, and although it does a very good job of arguing that these deaths were homicides, it's weak when it comes to connecting them all to the same killer(s), and even weaker in relation to the details of the group as a whole (in a practical and logistical sense). It's an entertaining enough show, and it's certainly intriguing, but in terms of proving its central thesis, it lacks anything even resembling solid evidence, relying instead on rhetoric and speculation, and seemingly unaware of Gannon's confirmation bias.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/1dpFRZ
A lot of confirmation bias on both sides and a lot of info left out, but the central thesis is convincing
The show follows the efforts of former LA District Attorney's Office prosecutor Loni Coombs, investigative journalist Billy Jensen, and forensic criminologist and former cold case investigator Paul Holes as they try to uncover enough evidence to convince the San Diego Sheriff's Department to declare Zahau's death "undetermined" and re-open the case. It's fairly compelling stuff, but as a TV show, although some fascinating questions are raised regarding the nature of the 'suicide', much of the four hours feel unnecessarily padded. This is especially frustrating when one considers just how much information is left out; information one can learn by watching the superior (and much shorter) Rebecca Zahau: An ID Murder Mystery (2019), or by listening to Dr. Phil McGraw's excellent five-episode podcast on the case, "Mansion of Secrets: The Mysterious Death of Rebecca Zahau" (2019), part of his Mystery and Murder: Analysis by Dr. Phil series. Completely confident in their assertion that Zahau was murdered and their belief that they know both who did it and why, the trio at the centre of Death at the Mansion spend a lot of time talking about the confirmation bias of the police, apparently unaware that their own bias is clear to see. This isn't a bad introduction to the case, but I'd strongly advise that, if you're interested in Zahau, you supplement your viewing with something a little more objective.
For my complete review, please visit: https://www.themoviedb.org/review/5ed7029b0398ab0023d04a93
A powerful examination of mental illness, murder, a broken judicial system, a sensationalist media, and the rotten, apathetic core of white picket fence America
Although The Devil You Know, which aired on Vice, is an excellent overview of the Pazuzu Algarad case, its real focus is the efforts of local journalist Chad Nance to get beyond the sensationalist media headlines of cannibalism, witchcraft, filed teeth, and forked tongues and get to the issues which not only gave rise to someone like Pazuzu, but which allowed him to operate with relative impunity despite law enforcement knowing for at least five years that he was involved with murder. Through Nance, the show branches off to examine issues such as addiction, law enforcement, societal apathy, and the ease with which directionless and marginalised young people can drift into potentially dangerous situations in the hope of finding somewhere they can belong. Devil You Know paints a vivid, compelling, and often heart-breaking picture of a community and way-of-life that appears idyllic, but which is rotten at the core and fundamentally broken in so many ways.
For my complete review, please visit: https://www.themoviedb.org/review/5eba0f267d2bc1001cfd6920
A decent overview of a savage murder, a town torn apart, two families destroyed, and the dark side of social media
It's a solid enough overview of the case, although some of the more interesting revelations are found, strangely enough, only in the accompanying podcast of the same name. A tad repetitive and not especially interesting from an aesthetic point of view, the show nevertheless does a good job of laying out the facts and illustrating just how many lives this horrific crime impacted, and how profoundly it impacted them.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/16LhDb
A solid, if somewhat pedestrian, overview of a case involving psychological abuse, sexual obsession, and murder
If you've already listened to Dave Crawley's exhaustive podcast, Cold, you'll find very little of interest in Disappearance (except for the presence of one, admittedly important, interviewee who didn't respond to Cawley's invitations for an interview). Going in the other direction though, if you know very little about the case, Disappearance is a very decent overview and introduction and should tell you whether or not you're interested enough before facing the more daunting deep dive of the podcast. It's got some noticeable aesthetic problems and makes a few rather ridiculous claims, but it's comprehensive, clear, and inclusive. And, just like Cold, it ultimately comes to focus on the years-in-the-making tragedy of Susan Powell and the fact that not all domestic abuse leaves bruises.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/14o8h7
Is the truth relevant in myth-making?
Ironically enough given its title, True History of the Kelly Gang is a film about lies. More specifically, it looks at the pivotal role lies play in cultural myth-making, how every myth is a fiction, a subjective interpretation and reframing of real events, oftentimes with the goal of inflating a person's reputation, oftentimes with the goal of diminishing it. Importantly, as with the novel on which it's based, True History is a work of historical fiction which invents characters and incidents, weaving such elements into what we know of the facts pertaining to Ned Kelly. Easily the best filmic depiction of the Kelly Gang, True History is rugged, fierce, bleak, sexually ambiguous, and psychologically exhausting, with universally exceptional acting and some quite stunning cinematography. Acknowledging Kelly as an important symbol in Australian cultural identity, the film occupies a kind of middle ground between condemning him as a sociopathic murderer and celebrating him as a passionate freedom fighter. It takes itself very seriously, which will probably put off those looking for more casual entertainment along the lines of Gregor Jordan's rather bland Ned Kelly (2003), but if you're in the mood for something complex, challenging, and esoteric, you could certainly do worse than True History.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/12I8iV
An impressive eco-thriller that could do with more clearly delineated characters
The debut feature from writer/director Neasa Hardiman, Sea Fever examines such issues as humanity's disregard for the size of our ecological footprint, the knee-jerk argument that if something hitherto unknown can't be exploited for profit then it should be destroyed, and Mankind's utter insignificance in the face of the wonders of nature. Heavily influenced by David Cronenberg's body horror films, Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), and John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), it could do with some refinement, especially in terms of characterisation, and the dénouement is a little anticlimactic, but Hardiman gets the atmosphere spot on, and overall, this is an impressive debut.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/12eSGp
A fascinating study of how a life-altering catastrophe for one person is nothing more than a traffic jam for another
The debut feature from writer/director Bartosz Kruhlik, Supernova is an excellently made and thematically fascinating film that manages to pack a lot into its 78 minutes; multiple well-rounded characters, several well-developed plot strands, socio-political commentary, existential musing, and a dénouement that throws everything we've seen into relief.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/11TmqR
Starts brilliantly but ultimately undermines itself with plot contrivances and genre foolishness
H.G. Wells's original The Invisible Man (1897) suggests that rather than something as powerful as invisibility being used for the betterment of mankind, it would instead be used to fulfil private desires, ultimately leading to the moral corruption of otherwise good men. In probably the best cinematic adaptation, Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man (2000), this is taken much further, with the suggestion that the results of invisibility would be nothing less than sexual violence, evil, and madness. However, despite the centrality of this theme in the core story, reframing the template as a modern tale of domestic abuse and PTSD, as happens in this latest adaptation, is a fascinating idea. Reorienting the narrative so it no longer focuses on the male scientist but on a female victim of his machinations creates the potential for some timely :pound_symbol:MeToo social commentary, particularly as it relates to issues of not believing women who accuse powerful men of gaslighting. But potential only gets you so far, and what could have been a really insightful film eventually proves itself relatively incapable of using issues of domestic abuse as anything other than plot points to get from one predictable scare to the next. It tries to have its cake and eat it – it wants to be an allegory for the problems women face leaving abusive relationships but it also wants to be an effective monster movie. And, ultimately, it ends up as neither.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/11Gp15
Emotionally ambiguous, thematically complex, aesthetically daring – an exceptionally accomplished directorial debut
The disparity between what a fanatic believes and what other people believe is the main issue examined in Saint Maud, the stunning debut feature from writer/director Rose Glass. Part-horror, part-psychological thriller, part-character drama, part-ecclesiastical treatise, Saint Maud can be read in a variety of ways – an analysis of the interaction between faith and self; a threnody for the life of a young woman suffering a mental breakdown; a drama about loneliness; a study of the importance of friendship; a tale of possession; a tragedy about the frailty of the human body. Told mainly (although not entirely) from the perspective of a fanatical Christian, the story makes room for the possibility that, however unlikely, such fanaticism isn't mental illness at all and that God really is communicating with this person. And this magnificently handled ambiguity is the film's trump card. Disturbing, horrifying, challenging, unpredictable, emotional, and occasionally very funny, this is a film that forges a path entirely its own, and is as impressive and daring a directorial debut as you're ever likely to find.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/11y2Wh
An emotive family drama that will disappoint those hoping for sci-fi bombast
Written by Alice Winocour and Jean-Stéphane Bron, and directed by Winocour, Proxima is the story of a mother and daughter trying to cope with impending separation. The fact that the mother is an astronaut and that the separation will result from a year-long mission to Mars is very much secondary. Instead, we're presented with something more universal and relatable – the often contradictory responsibilities one has to one's profession and one's family. At the same time, this (unapologetically feminist) film looks at the demands placed on a woman in a male dominated field where machoism counts for something. Proxima is a quiet story that maps in great detail the sheer force of will it takes to get into the condition necessary to go space. And although the narrative does sag in a couple of places, and Winocour frustratingly abandons realism in a crucial scene towards the end, Proxima is brilliantly acted throughout. It certainly won't appeal to those looking for the grandiosity or existentialism of classic sci-fi, but it remains a moving examination of motherhood.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/11m1kn
An exceptional, albeit painful, film that reminds us men aren't the only ones capable of sexual abuse
Examining the destructive power of forbidden desire and how sexual abuse can masquerade as consensual seduction, it's a film wherein our protagonist becomes our antagonist, where her initial self-confidence transforms into heartless manipulation, where our emotional centre shifts multiple times, where our own morality is examined, where our sympathies are used against us as we're pushed to condone something abhorrent. A psychologically fascinating and morally complex film, in the age of :pound_symbol:MeToo, Dronningen dares to remind us that women can be the perpetrators of abuse just as men can be its victims.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/112DPD
A savage and hilarious satire
Examining how the rich get richer whilst the poor get unpaid jobs building faux-Roman coliseums on Greek islands, the film focuses specifically on a successful British clothing entrepreneur, and its bread and butter is the concomitant grotesquery that results when an individual has the same wealth as a small country. Effectively mixing send-up and satire with more serious socio-economic points, Greed doesn't really do or say a huge amount that hasn't been done or said before, but it's entertaining, amusing, and undeniably relevant.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/10TNVD
A fascinating premise and setup, but the execution is tedious
We live in an age where so many people work to live and live to work. We live in an age where Big Pharma has worryingly significant control over our lives via the drugs we're prescribed, drugs that so many people need just to make it through the day. We live in an age of genetic engineering and the commodification of well-being. And these are some of the weighty themes tackled in Little Joe, a clinically detached, aesthetically fascinating pseudo-horror with a killer premise, but questionable execution. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the first hour or so, relishing the slow pace and methodical build, the gradual accumulation of detail, the anticipatory discomfort at seeing the protagonist pushed further and further into a corner. However, at around the 75 minute mark, I realised that this wasn't a slow build to something; this slow build was the something. And with that realisation, it didn't take long for tedium to settle in. I certainly admire the film's thematic complexity and stunning visual and aural design, but, in its totality, it's completely lifeless, the tone rigidly detached and dispassionate no matter what's happening on-screen, like a long sentence spoken in a gratingly monotone voice. It's one of those films I wish I had enjoyed a lot more than I did, but the fact is, I found the last act (which is not especially dissimilar to the previous acts) a real struggle to get through.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/10CJ6H
Never gets past the kind of introductory material you could find online
Written and directed by Ciaran Cassidy, Jihad Jane tells the stories of Colleen LaRose (the eponymous Jihad Jane) and Jamie Paulin Ramirez (Jihad Jamie), two forty-something white American women who were separately radicalised by Islamic extremists online and brought into an al-Qaeda plot to kill artist Lars Vilks. Dubbed the "new face of terrorism" by the almost comically ill-informed and sensationalist American news media, LaRose and Ramirez were ultimately revealed as two fragile and damaged women, each of whom had a history of abuse and were more interested in finding a sense of belonging than in politics. The film is a decent enough overview of the subject, but there's very little here that you can't find on Wikipedia, with Cassidy failing to engage with the more interesting sociological themes behind LaRose and Ramirez's stories.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/10gc6Z
A well-made creature-feature; it may not be original, but it is entertaining
The last film distributed by 20th Century Fox before they were rebranded as 20th Century Studios by Disney, Underwater was shot in early 2017 for $50 million and then sat on a shelf for over two years. Now that it's finally seeing the light of day, there's a real sense of Disney just wanting to be rid of Fox's clutter, and they either didn't know how to promote it or didn't want to promote it, as the marketing campaign has been next to invisible (and the bland title certainly doesn't help), with the film grossing a paltry $7 million in its opening weekend. From Disney's perspective, of course, releasing it in the January release window makes sense, as it's a period traditionally dominated by duds and cast-offs – films the studios don't care about for one reason or another. A recent high-profile example is Blackhat, Michael Mann's underrated 2015 cyber-terrorism drama, which was released with little to no advertising, grossing only $20 million at the North American box office against a $70 million budget. However, much like Blackhat, Underwater is considerably better than most January releases. Sure, it's clichéd and predictable, and it shamelessly borrows from a litany of superior genre films, but it's also a very entertaining and enjoyable aquatic creature-feature.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/109tJb
