I always love seeing Australian cinema out there. And movies about demons...spirits etc. They're something I'm especially keen on.
Talk to Me is about Mia, a girl grieving her mother's sudden death two years prior. She is introduced to this unbelievable game that her classmates play where they set a ceramic hand on the table, grasp it and say "talk to me", leading something out there to come to the other side.
This movie doesn't shy away from gore, and it's especially impactful as the characters are teenagers. The tension builds in each scene, almost explosively delivered in horrifying outcomes (especially given the sound mixing and how freaking loud it is). There's not really noticeable music in this film, just the regular bush doof pumping beats but nothing I really enjoyed and it still keeps its jump scares kind of obvious with the sound cues.
The story unravels with really great pacing but I found Mia's character development to be a little weak. I can justify it by seeing her as just a teenager out there, lost and alone. She's an outcast because her family changed, no one can relate to her and she's sad and a downer. She's still grieving her mother and the movie's core concept puts her back at the start of her grief journey. She's drawn in by having a connection to someone, by feeling like she's part of a group...which leads her to make poor choices. I did feel like we needed more growth to come through - she has a found family who love her and care for her but she still almost falls to the words of her spirit mum, she's not able to see what's really surrounding her...and that didn't make that much sense to me. It's obvious she cherishes Riley and Jade, and feels loved by them. so I needed more convincing to believe that the script choices were ones she would make.
I did wonder if her wearing yellow in every scene was just style choices or a symbol of her place in her grief journey and joy...but I'm not sure.
I did really enjoy the ending sequences of the film and how it tied back to its lore. It's a solid film and worth the watch.
It's terribly sad to see comments that are taking the "story" for what it is worth at face value and outright dismissing the movie entirely
As loathe as I am to watch "arthouse" movies, this one certainly struck quite a few chords. The journey of the young, unsure, foolhardy knight and his misplaced sense of honor and the turn he takes into fully accepting his destiny was one I enjoyed very much. The visuals and the sounds did play a large part in it, completely selling the atmosphere of a magical kingdom with swathes of unknown and unexplored mystery. The performances, too, were excellent and Dev Patel was very convincing as Sir Gawain
I'm sorry to say but the story is very, very obvious. As with these "artsy fartsy" movies, the way it is told is what elevates it and here, I feel it was justified and used to great effect. Instead of giving us the straightforward story of Sir Gawain in the ballad, something that has been told for centuries (and something I looked up afterwards because I'm not British or European at all), this movie instead attempts to recontextualise and shroud the entire thing in an air of magic and I found myself enraptured by it
It's the classic tale of a straightforward story told in a convoluted way. As King Arthur says at the very beginning, it was always just a game. What mattered was the journey Gawain took that changed him into someone who would accept what was coming because of his honor. The fox and the mansion were distractions and tried to keep him from achieving his destiny. The sash, given by his mother and returned by the witch in the mansion, was to prevent him harm but it prevented it by making him a coward. What happens after the Knight swings his axe is just the future that awaits for him for his broken oath. He removes the sash, thus letting go of all fears and the Green Knight, satisfied with the man he sees before him, lets him go. The Green Knight was never truly harmed and there was never a reason to harm Gawain either
I loved this movie. It blended the mystical and made for an enthralling journey through beautiful lands and forests and was something truly unique that I appreciate and left me wanting more
I had heard good things going in, and I was still thoroughly impressed. This is definitely my favorite movie I've seen this year, and quite possibly in the past few. While he is at some of his best in the movie, very little of that has to do with Nicolas Cage.
There is way more substance than the trailer gives you clues to. Outside of the rich narrative, the film is a masterclass in "less is more" to illustrate complex subjects through well executed inference. Michael Sarnoski's writing and directorial debut demonstrates some of the best storytelling skills I've seen in a long time. This will be a piece I point to for a while on effective filmmaking.
Underneath the novel premise of the movie is deep subject matter and one of the more mature explorations of grief and purpose in life. I wouldn't call this a feel good movie, but rather one that lays out a difficult but healthy and necessary path to dealing with tragedy and loss. I called Manchester by the Sea on of the best movies on grief ever made, because it showed how broken it can make people. Pig is an answer to it that shows the health of acceptance and recognizing the value in what we chose to spend our time doing.
A look into the life of a fighter pilot-turned drone operator (Ethan Hawke) who becomes increasingly wary of his job as the missions stray further and further from their ethical boundaries.
Well I figured this one might be worth a shot, and it’s a nice follow-on from Eye in the Sky. Apart from their subject matter the two films share little in common. Eye in the Sky is a thriller with an all-star ensemble cast while Good Kill focuses mainly on Ethan Hawke, and his life as it spirals out of control.
It also adopts a much harsher view on the drone program. The whole system gets painted as, essentially, a CIA-run killing machine, with only the people at the controls stopping to think about what they are doing. It’s probably too extreme, but the cynic in me thinks it’s likely closer to the truth than the hours spent making decisions in Eye in the Sky.
That said, unfortunately Good Kill also has its failings, and they are more glaringly obvious than the other film. For one, it’s incredibly repetitive. They step into the booth, get the command, pull the trigger, wash rinse repeat. Each time they begin to doubt themselves a little more but it starts to feel like Groundhog Day with a particularly bloodthirsty Bill Murray.
A convincing story, impressively accurate level of detail and solid central performance eventually get droned out of existence, when the dust settles we’re left with tired old cliches and little else. Another waste of a good idea from Andrew Niccol, I’m afraid.
http://benoliver999.com/film/2016/04/18/goodkill/
An immigrant child in a new school battling hormones and her mother's Senegalese traditions tries so hard to fit in she breaks.
Cuties / Mignonnes is everything but cute. It's rough, hard, brutal, tragic and very real. Director Maïmouna Doucouré paints the gut wrenching portrait of the young lady and the clique she's dying to enter with sensitivity, soul and a touch of magical realism that mark the reader like a dark tattoo.
Amy is a complex character (terrifically written by Doucouré and played to a T by Fathia Youssouf) because in the same instant she elicits our sympathy, our anger and our disgust. She makes all the wrong decisions for all the right reasons and because for an 11-year-old on the threshold of puberty, there is only right now and desires that blind them from seeing any consequences of their actions.
As for the ridiculous controversy launched by those who haven't seen the film and fueled by blind ignorance: I find it interesting that people will criticize a female woman of color for directing a film based on her personal experiences, whereas when Woody Allen makes a film about young women throwing themselves at older men, he's hailed as a genius.
Shame on those who shame someone for trying to tell their story. Cinema is meant to be a stage for sharing, not an arena for executing artists we judge despite knowing nothing about them or their art.
:fire: I'm glad that Hellboy is back on the big screen, but this one's a mixed bag. I'm fine with the cast; David played a good Hellboy, and Milla was a wonderful villain. There's definitely potential. However, this film suffered mostly from very rushed editing. There were many scenes where I feel they should've given a little more time with such as introducing characters, performing certain actions, or flashback scenes. There were some funnies that got me chuckling, I admit, and the lines fit the Hellboy character just fine. The visual effects are a half-and-half mix of actors in rubber suit costumes and CG, albeit some good but short green screens with the slow-motion fire and backgrounds. Even the gore effects were awesome. Most of the entertainment is found in the later half of the film. I just feel this would've benefited more if the story was spread out as a (Netflix) TV series because there's so much of Hellboy's story to tell. Director Neil Marshall had done a few notable TV shows already, and I enjoyed his Dog Soldiers and The Descent films very much. The post end credits scenes do set up for a sequel so we'll see if that happens. My friend and I left the theater just a tiny bit underwhelmed and now longing to rewatch the original first two Hellboy films by Guillermo del Toro that starred Ron Perlman, which from memory, provided us with not only the dark undertone but also a more lush quality to them. Wait for this to arrive on video if you're curious. Otherwise, I think other films like Shazam!, Us, Missing Link, or The Curse of La Llorrona would be the better choice.
I originally became interested in this because i remembered a news article about that the actor Shelley Malil (In the movie he is the father of the girl that gets deported with her mother for being a "terrorist") received life in prison for the attempted murder of his girlfriend, and this was his last movie. I know its kind of a weird way to find a movie you want to watch, but there it is.
This movie has a very powerful cast of different people. They play the roles of Mexican, Korean, Palestinian, Israeli, Australian and Persian. And they all have one goal in mind: to become an American citizen and live the American dream. They all have their own way of getting there, and while some succeed, some also fail. Their stories interweave and connect with each other.
Personally i would never move to the USA, but i can see the appeal for people in third world countries that the USA has. The question is: what would you sacrifice to become an American citizen? And what would you sacrifice in order to give your loved ones a fighting change in the land of "endless opportunities"? This movie tries to answer those questions, and in my opinion did that very well.
The movie follows the style of several stories interwoven throughout the plot, same as many successful ones before it i.e. Babel, Crash and that is just at the top of my head..
That being said, here we go..
The movie follows a very cold and truthful view about what people are willing to do to get what they think or believe are their dreams. It is not about that dream per say but about what you have to do to achieve it.. might it be to leave a loved one behind, give up on your hopes, sell yourself to the highest bidder or plain out hurt yourself..
What I liked about it, is how it shows you that after all the dust settles in you would discover that you might have gotten what you thought you wanted but you have lost something far more precious which is yourself and what is left is just not enough..
That the American Dream might not be the fairy tale that everyone is selling it out to be after all!!!
Of course since I liked the movie.. It is safe to say that the critics didn't..
The film received negative reviews.
On Rotten Tomatoes the movie received 16%, of 106 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 4.1/10.
The site's consensus reads that: "Crossing Over is flagrant and heavy-handed about a situation that deserves more deliberate treatment, and joins its characters with coincidences that strain believability."
Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of 38 based on reviews from 31 critics indicating "generally unfavourable reviews".
However, I invite you to check it out.. It is worth the watch..
A complete waste of time.
If you are a comics fan, and for some reason you still haven't seen this one, save a few hours of your life and pick another movie.
In the other hand if you are not a comic fan, but still want to see a nice superhero movie, check out the ones made by Christopher Reeve almost 40 years ago, you wont be disappointed with those.
This movie has an impressive cast, that's the only reason why I seen it completely, I think for respect of them, but i was so close to stop watching it, and be the first one in my life i did not finish, that's how bad it is.
The options were endless for a superman movie, and even more considering this is supposed to be a dark superman, for me he is more like a reckless one, but they decided to put a ton of super mega FX, which are not convincing at all, and have two semi-gods destroying JUST one city while battling with their superpowers and dont have an scratch in their faces or they immaculate customs.
Lois Lane appears in every single moment with the correct answer or with a brilliant idea of how to stop the bad guys or to be requested in the presence of the powerful entities that came to conquer the world and exterminate the human race to create a new Kripton, but yeah, she needs to be there.
I cannot continue the critiques because I would need to start spoiling the movie and that's something I dont like to do, but i did advice it on the beginning of my review, if you still decide to see this awful movie is on your own mental health risk.
I really hope that Superman vs Batman: Dawn of Justice is not as bad as this one is.
