Probably more mindblowing for an American audience that barely gets any exposure to this kind of material from its own industry. For my taste, Guadagnino plays it way too safe. I was waiting for it to push beyond the melodrama into something more wild or messed up, and I never really got that. He's constantly flexing with impressive camerawork, great editing and a fantastic score, but what is it all in service of? There's not a lot more to this than very basic melodrama. Tennis is used a metaphor for innuendo and relationships, which becomes a bit eye-rolling as the film goes along. On top of that it's not nearly as sexy as some people are suggesting, it feels like a lot of foreplay and innuendo without a real pay-off at any point. His camera doesn't shy away from nudity or sweat, and Trent Reznor's score puts in a lot of work in turning up the heat, but you want it to push beyond that at some point. For me it doesn't really develop into anything surprising and the conclusion it ultimately goes with feels kinda lame because of it. Still, it does a good job at intriguing you with the personal struggles of the three main characters, all of which are well portrayed by the actors. Zendaya is a bit hard to read at times, though it could be intentional with the character she's playing. There's enough merit to the complexity of the characters and technical aspects that kept me from being bored, but the entire time I kept thinking about how much more interesting this could be with someone like Paul Verhoeven at the helm.
6/10
[9.5/10] The most ingenious choice that Greta Gerwig’s Little Women makes is to chop up the story so as to juxtapose present and past. It not only immediately marks this adaptation as distinct from its predecessors, but helps to recontextualize and connect different parts of the story to make it feel new again.
The audience has a chance to meet and appreciate Freidrich before Laurie has burrowed into their hearts. By the same token, the joy and connection between Amy and Laurie can be front and center from the get-go, without springing it on the viewer halfway through the story. And the bookend approach allows Gerwig to put Jo’s drive and travails as a writer into the spotlight early.
But the biggest advantage it confers on the film is how it allows Little Women to constantly contrast the lives that these young girls imagined they would lead one day, with the lives each finds themselves inhabiting in the future. Like the novel it’s based on, Gerwig’s adaptation is anchored squarely around considering the wildest dreams of its titular set of sisters, and measuring them against the paths actually available to women in their time, and the places their choices and passions take them. The jumps back and forth and time allow Gerwig to check expectation with reality, to trace cause and effect, and to resolve the two with poignance and grace.
It also allows Gerwig and company to flesh out each of the young women at the center of the narrative. Jo March still commands the story and the screen. Saoirse Ronan throws herself into the role, conveying all the punch, heedlessness, and subtle vulnerabilities of the character with endearing abandon. It is both a dream role and a hard one, but Ronan makes it look effortless.
And yet, this adaptation makes time for the other March sisters to falter and flourish. Amy is vivid and real from the jump, with her questioning of her own talents, her sense of being second to Jo, and her truth-telling relationship with Laurie put front and center. Meg’s chance at a life of elegance and plenty, the love that pulls her away from it, and the joys and hardships of that choice are given time to breathe. And Beth remains the heart of the film -- still a little too pure for this world, but one who suffers for her own goodness, reminds a kindly neighbor of what’s been lost, and spurs her sister to take up what she’s put down.
All the while, Little Women is utterly gorgeous to look at through the March Sisters’ misadventures. Gerwig and cinematographer Yorick Le Saux capture the bucolic beauty of scene after scene draped in New England splendor. The pair construct tableaus of faraway elegance and local beauty in turn. But these visuals aren’t gratuitous. Beyond making the movie a treat to watch, it helps sell the contrast at the heart of the film. Scenes set in Jo’s youth have a golden hue, an inviting glow that conveys the idyllic, hopeful tone of those early days. And the ones set in her adulthood are darker and starker, visually communicating the various cold realities the March family has had to grapple with in later years.
As necessary as it is to contend with those cold realities, it’s just plain fun to vicariously share in the joy that Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy share with their mother and friends in their family home. Apart from its structural choices, apart from its character focus, the greatest strength of Gerwig’s Little Women is how well it captures this sense of young people at play, of a headstrong young woman in their element, and that unfathomable, spontaneous vigor of youth.
The March Sisters, and their friends and close confidants, fight and babble and hug and exalt together. There’s a move toward Gilmore-esque speed and overlap in conversation after conversation, expressing the happy chaos that envelops these lives. This story is founded on the breadth of possibility forged in such a simple, familiar environment, on the pleasures and satisfactions found despite absences and meager means, on blessings shared and passed around. The warmth of the March household would not work if those who orbit and inhabit it, did not seem so real in their rough-and-tumble interactions and simple joys.
Those joys, however, are meant to run up against the expectations of adulthood that clash with allowances of youth. That’s the role Aunt March plays -- the naysayer to the slack existence her brother and his wife and children have made for each other. But Gerwig does not make her a villain. Instead, she is merely practical, a woman who knows from her own experiences which choices are permitted and which invite difficulties, delivered with an amusing wryness that makes her endearing even as she aims to stifle her nieces’ dreams.
That’s the crux of Gerwig’s adaptation. The March sisters imagine wondrous lives for one another, borne on the backs of each’s great talent. Jo pictures herself as a bold writer in the big city who never marries anything but her art. Meg sees glimpses of a life where she’ll never have to work, where there’s time for things like acting and society and beautiful dresses. Amy envisions the life of the genius painter overseas who stands with giants. And each finds those dreams running aground on the many limitations of the real world, with tethers made extra taut for the declaratively fairer sex.
All except for Beth, whose dreams lie in the simple doing of good, the making of music for those around to hear it rather than for the masses, despite her prodigious abilities. She is the cinch of Little Women, not merely in her death which brings the March sister home. But in her life of quiet kindness at home, in her peace with what must come and the joy to be found despite it, a joy they found together in the attic and can still share and revive no matter how big or little they are now.
Jo, Amy, and Meg each regains a measure of that golden glow in the shadow of the house they grew up in. Amy loses the artists life in Paris she imagines, but finds happiness in a partner who vindicates her talents and for whom love triumphs over station. Meg is denied by circumstance of the beautiful things and easy life she once pictured, but is buoyed by the care and satisfaction of family and a life built with the man she loves. Even Jo turns away from the “spicy” stories that sell to stuffy cigar-smoking New York publishers and finds her truth, finds her greatness, in the bonds fraught and familiar at home, with a winking-but-joyous connection to a beau of her own. And each is seen sharing the fruits of their talents, passing them on to a new generation of young men and women.
There’s a degree of wish-fulfillment to the close of the film, a heartstring-tugging image of familial warmth in a bucolic setting. But Gerwig earns that warmth. The happiness crafted in a humble home is measured against the metes and bounds of the wider world, and found no less worthy. The choices afforded to women of any station at the time are reckoned with and suffered in, with the ensuing joys and small, self-possessed rebellions made more potent in that unfair crucible. The losses each suffers, the distance between the lives they dreamed and the lives they live, is laid bare in the cuts between past and present.
But in the end, Gerwig does as Alcott did, and makes the fulfillment each chooses meaningful by those terms. The hardships great and small each endures, make it more than a publisher-mandated happy ending when, despite that difference between past imagination and present truth, each of these little women realizes they’re living the lives they truly want.
«Oh, and there are angels by the way. They don’t have wings and live in clouds. They wear nurse’s uniforms and work hard to pay the rent on their houses. Some work for charities because they can’t look the other way. Some have four legs and bark. But whatever they look like, they all save lives. Sometimes you bump into them. Like Lisa. And Stan. And you - And you marry them. I know that Lisa and Stan aren’t angels now. But they were. If you want to be an angel, you’ve got to do it when you’re alive. Be good. Do good things. Introduce a lonely woman to a nice man. You’re my angel, Tony».
—-
«E comunque gli angeli esistono. Non hanno le ali, non vivono sulle nuvole. Indossano divise da infermiere, lavorano sodo per pagare l’affitto di casa. Alcuni lo fanno per beneficienza, perché è nella loro natura. Alcuni hanno quattro zampe e abbaiano. Ma a prescindere dal loro aspetto, salvano tutti delle vite. A volte ti capita di incontrarli. Come.. Lisa.
E Stan. E tu.. tu ci convoli a nozze. So che Lisa e Stan non sono angeli ora. Ma lo erano. Se vuoi essere un angelo devi farlo quando sei in vita. Sii buono. Fai buone azioni. Un angelo presenta una donna sola a un brav’uomo. Tu sei il mio angelo, Tony».
As a Turkish person i thought that it is really non-sided and great everything was good the costumes the acting the special effects the battle sequences there was some flaws of course i thought Guistiniani had more screen time than it should have and Aksemsettin was not present in the show at all (he was always with Sultan he was his teacher and mentore he convinced the Mehmed to capture the city when Mehmed thought of giving up) other than that it was great i recommend you to watch it it feeds you with information.
The both empires were great; Ottoman and Byzantium. In this Tv serie there might be some problems about historical reality... I mean we cannot consider the tv serie is a historical documentary. But as a tv serie it was good. As a Turk, I believe all countries make movies or tv series that their army so great, so mercy and so strong. Yes it is good to watch if you are a nationalist and your nationality so great in the movies. But we should of course know the reality. If we can't see the reality we can't be friend. I see all countries find bad stories about their enemies. Actually governments like it, because nationalism is a key for strong governments. In real we are just humans, we cant decide that which nationality we can have. So there are two type peoples. Bad people and good people.
Have you heard the joke about the cat, the black hole, and a glass of milk? No? Me neither, but I'm looking forward to the punchline.
Warning: Spoilers and rambling, borderline insane speculation below.
Yep, still very much invested in this show. Still speculating about lots of things, particularly about who, between Campion and Paul, is Remus and who is Romulus (considering the show title and the placement of Mother's nipples... symbolic of her being the Capitoline wolf and mother of the aforementioned "twins"). Also, how exactly does the serpent/Ouroboros tie in... that it seems to be a benign positive beginning right now is clear, but will it eventually become the bringer of the end... will it become Apophis? How? Also, what killed the scientists? Does it live within the acid ocean? Is it also a serpent? Will it and Mother's child mirror the relationship between Campion and Paul/Romulus and Remus... Is the android creature Father is reviving one of the dangerous old world serpent worshippers we saw in Mother's vision when she was giving birth?
Speculative science fiction... it writes itself, lol (nod to Ursula K. Le Guin)... nah, it's fun to guess at what everything means, but that can only last for so long before you lose most of your audience. That punchline and clarity better come quick.
Finally something actually happened after they dragged the season for absolutely nothing.
After four mediocre episodes in a row with three of them being filler, this episode is decent enough. Those previous episodes serve no actual purpose other than waiting for the plot to trigger itself by that call.
The dialogues in this episode could be better and so could the way the scenes are cut, especially for the first half. People seem too eager to join The Mando in his quest for the sake of moving the story. However the last 5-10 the minutes is quite watchable with enough tense. The brute killing in the last scene seems to suggest they're going with the "evil Empire" cliche, but I wish they could do better than that next episode.
It seems like the story just started to be set in motion and we will be left with more questions as Season 1 ends, which unfortunately seems to be Disney+ business model: just make cute Baby Yoda stuff for moms and Star Wars reference for dads, figure things out later in Season 2.
On positive notes, it's nice that they attempt to do more world-building like shocktroopers having signature tattoo, each Imperial province having their own insignia, and the Imperial warlord trying to convince people that the world is better with colonialism.
Compared to previous episodes, this episode is not bad, but still dumbly written.
As usual, a supposedly professional team of mercenaries turns out to be incompetent just-for-laugh bollocks, as shown by one person destroying a droid for fun in a ship they know are extremely guarded by, well, droid's connectivity. And no one seems to be troubled with that. Apparently recklessness and naivety are traits commonly shared by supposedly 'fighters' in this show - we've seen people ranging from bounty hunters, ex-rebel shock trooper, and even the Mando himself, who consistently failed to notice obvious traps (eps 5), wasted their time for overly convoluted plans (eps 4), or simply appeared to took the same marksmanship class as stormtroopers (eps 3 & 5).
Oddly, for a ship supposedly to be extremely secure, barely any droids patrol the ship. Even when the ship was on full emergency alert. The droids conveniently only appear as distraction as the plot needs it; for a heist/rescue episode, this leaves no stake on breaching the ship at all.
Speaking of stake, the characters also consistently make questionable decisions. Despite knowing they are limited on time, they just waste it for squabbling between themselves, hunting for each other down to the last of it, instead of focusing on running away from the ship.
But the worst offender is our titular character.
The Mando turns out to be a Disneyfied, Sunday morning, family-friendly bounty hunter, as he refuses to hurt people from New Republic but oddly has no qualms killing/hurting people who happen to be on the side of other factions (stormtroopers, bandits, fellow professionals, or even just a person who happens to have a huge debt - eps. 1).
It appears that the "hunting" in bounty hunting is only legitimate, as long as it doesn't involve one of the "good guys". Good guys according to who? No in-universe explanation is given except that according to Disney, New Republic must be the good guys. This show seems to be the opposite of Star Wars: The Old Republic (the online game, not the single player RPG): where the game aligns bounty hunter in the "evil" faction just because Boba Fett worked for the Empire, this show aligns bounty hunter in the "good" faction just because Mando is the protagonist.
The Mando also always consistently failed to realize that leaving Baby Yoda alone always means a bad thing. I mean, this is his damn third time doing that.
That being said, the action is quite well-done. The Twi'lek girl is choreographed nicely. The Mando has some cool action with his gears. The ending has some tense, though the last order from Ran feels a bit cheap. Unfortunately, those still can't save the episode from its below-average screen writing.
That's my show! what an amazing, creepy, emotional and disturbing episode. It was good, except that ending. It like an episode from season 2. very Kripke-like. That creepy beginning gave me the jeebes. i liked that it didn't start with the "hey, i've found a case".
Was it me or were the boys' roles reversed? Dean was totally wrote off. It can be understood given the Mary situation, but he disappearing for the last half of the episode, wtf? He knew that they let Magda die and he is suprisingly OK with it, he even says they are good people. Dean would never do that. And then Sam acted as Dean saying "God didn't kill her, you did". I get this is a difficult time for him, I mean heartbreak's a bitch, but Dean was totally wrote off, although on purpose. At the end of the episode I was just waiting for him to appear, like he always does, but he didn't. it was like their roles were reversed this week, maybe because being who Dean really is reminds him of Mary? He disliking rock music, being wrong in a case, not turning up at the farm when he knew Sam was in trouble, all those are things Dean will never do. I mean, the fact that he doesn't like Vince and that Sam does could emphasise the differnt tastes in music, but all in all, it was weird. Maybe Vince is a crappy rock star after all. I liked cranky Dean, but not this way. He knew this was gonna happen since the very beginning but he doesn't deserve this. He's always taken care of his family and asked for nothing in return. And now Mary's gone again, right in the face.
The family's acting was spot on, especially Magda and her mother. The ending however was so sad but, what the he'll, they let a psykid go that easy? She killed people, she's been idk, 4-5 years locked up, tortured and they let her go just like that? I thought she was gonna kill someone at the end, I didn't expect Mr Ketch to kill her.
Anyways, pretty decent episode. Let's see how it all is handled with the Mary subplot.
I'm writing this based only on the pilot, but OMG! There are Nazis and the Imperial Japanese, and they occupy America. This actually gives us a perspective on ourselves. In the show, the Nazis torture people, and the Japs invade someone's home, calling it a matter of "national security". In our reality, the CIA tortures people, and the NSA invades our homes, calling it a matter of "national security".
It's not simply a matter of an alternate reality. There is an object from our reality in theirs. That moves the show from pure fiction to science fiction. Our reality affects theirs. Does theirs affect ours?
Set in past, but not our past, the show requires a lot of careful details in the shots. The San Francisco skyline is an old one, and yet there are modifications for the increased Japanese influence.
The show is dense, and I found myself rewinding multiple times. One example is the origami unicorn. This was very significant in the movie Blade Runner (director's cut), and I'm guessing it is here too. Blade Runner is a movie that is like great literature, and I've always wanted a TV show that is like great literature, so maybe the Man in the High Castle is it!
Thank you Philip K. Dick!
What in the actual f*ck.
I'm a reasonable man, I realize I've been crapping on D&D even more than usual this season but I really do have to give them props for doing exactly what they set out to do. They hoped to subvert our expectations and they did just wonderfully in that regards.
We expected all of that buildup over the years to actually amount to something that at the very least passes for a presentable series finale but instead, we got an incoherent, steaming pile of shit. Expectations subverted!
We expected all of that character development to actually result in a beautiful pay-off that respects the journey of self-discovery each and every one of our beloved characters went through to get to where they are now but instead, we got a painful, disrespectful cycle of character regression. Expectations subverted!
We expected the final season of this show to keep us at the edge of our seats with thrilling writing that didn't subvert our expectations for the sake of subverting our expectations via low-quality shock value-seeking writing, but to introduce plot twists that make sense within the overall narrative of the story but instead, we got CW-level predictable, cringe material. Expectations subverted!
I get it. I really do. GRRM let them down by not getting the books ready in time and so they had to improvise away from his influence, but this? This? For a long while, Game of Thrones lived up to the slogan of its parent network, it wasn't just TV, it was something different, something unique and now to have to see it come to this... it's nothing short of disappointing.
On the bright side though, at least this episode didn't suck completely. The acting, score and cinematography were all on point, so I guess it's nice that I didn't walk out of it having appreciated absolutely nothing about it.
So why do I even bother anymore? I honestly could not tell you, though it's probably a mixture of masochism and a faint sliver of hope that they won't flush our collective investment into this series down the drain by the end of it, just one more episode dammit.
[7.7/10] Given the dearth of LGBTQ characters in major mainstream works, I feel like there’s a tendency for fans to ship any two people of the same sex who shows the slightest bit of friendship or affection for one another. That makes me hesitant to suggest what I’m about to suggest for fear of falling into that trap, but here goes anyway -- Danny has better chemistry with Davos than he’s ever had with Colleen.
In fact, I think there’s a fair read of the final scene of this episode, where Davos sees Danny embracing Colleen in the rain like in so many romcoms, as Davos walking away upset that his crush is with someone else. But whether you consider it a bug or a feature (and I consider it the latter), what’s interesting is that the episode works equally well with and without that subtext.
If you choose to read it without that element, Davos still has one of the better motivated (and better-acted) presences in this show in just a couple of quick episodes. He is pulled in two directions, because he is clearly fiercely loyal to Danny (his “I won’t leave you” while Danny’s getting stitched up by Claire evidences that), but he’s also jealous and resentful of him. That makes his reactions to Danny and to the new life he’s scratched out for himself in New York layered in a way that really only Ward Meachum’s have been on the show so far.
On the one hand, Davos admits that he feels a little usurped by Danny, that he believed becoming the iron fist was his birthright and the fact that the monks chose Danny instead of him still eats at him. And, to add insult to injury, Danny abandoned his post, and set his duties aside. Danny has the thing Davos wanted most in the world, a thing that was denied him, and seems to be walking away from it, shirking his responsibilities. It’s the sort of thing that would bother anyone, and Sacha Dhawan conveys the restrained frustrations of his character well.
But on the other hand, Davos feels betrayed at a more personal level. When he tells Claire that he treated Danny like a brother and that he nevertheless just left without saying a word, you can see it emanating from a more personal sort of hurt, the type that believed they had a friendship that could not be disregarded so easily. That friendship is given texture by all of Danny’s previous fond recollections of the hijinx the pair would go together, and that adds depth to the conflict between the two friends when Davos questions Danny leaving Kunlun and asks what appeal this world holds for him.
And yet, it can also be taken a step further, that Davos is not simply hurt as a friend and brother in arms, but as someone who has romantic feelings for Danny that may not have been reciprocated or ever even acknowledged. I’ll admit this may be a stretch on my part, and perhaps I’m taking the completely dead romance the show has tried to sell between Danny and Colleen, in this episode especially, seeing Finn Jones have a modicum of chemistry with someone on this otherwise anodyne show, and concluding that by comparison, his concordance with Davos must be love. But either way, there’s clear affection, whether filial or something more, between the two of them, that creates interesting and conflicting motivations for the pair.
I’m as shocked to say it as anyone, but this also gives a really interesting answer to the question of why Danny left Kunlun. For a while, the assumed answer was a pragmatic one -- to find out what happened to his parents, but we also get an emotional one here. Danny, understandably, felt “empty” after what happened to him and his parents, and he thought that becoming the iron fist, reaching the pinnacle of the cultural collective he was brought into, would fill that in his life.
Only he finds that when he achieves what he set out to do that it isn’t as fulfilling as he’d hoped. He sits around at the gates of Kunlun stacking rocks and seeming like his duty is a tedious and hollow one. Seeing the bird flying free as a sign is kind of cheesy, but it still speaks to a relatable notion of having done what you set out to do, and yet it not fixing the deeper-seeded problems within. It adds a human dimension to Danny’s struggle that’s been lost in the usual orphan backstory and generic kung fu material.
We also get more hints that the Monks of Kunlun are not exactly sterling examples. It’s appropriate that Danny is expected to go into a cave to face trials to reach the next level of his training, because there’s a real Jedi vibe to all of his. Danny and Davos have been trained to suppress their anger and other strong emotions – such sentiment is not appropriate for a weapon – and yet it’s still there, haunting Danny and blocking his chi.
There is a sense, brought forward in an occasionally dull but generally good conversation with Claire, that Danny never really processed what happened with him and his parents, and those difficult emotions are still affecting him, even if he doesn’t acknowledge it. There are connections he has to this world that he just can’t shake using his Kunlun discipline.
Unfortunately, one of those connections is Colleen. The whole tortured “how could you lie to me?” angst between them is pretty awful, especially because we know they’ll inevitably overcome it and team up to help one another. Without good performances or writing in the overwrought scenes between the two of them, it just feels like a perfunctory bit of squabbling without any emotional punch.
And to add insult to injury, we get more Bakuto here, who plays the angry cult leader with all the charisma of worn hockey puck. There’s a common theme to this episode, with both Danny and Colleen realizing that the organizations that trained them may be less than noble, but since we just got introduced to this sect of The Hand and Colleen’s connection to it, her half of the proceedings have no weight.
The only bit of real intrigue is that we learn Bakuto’s sect is doing the same blood draining stuff that The Hand was doing in Daredevil Season 2. Otherwise, it’s more nonsensical, shoehorned in antagonist stuff that detracts from the better-than-usual things “Lead” pulls off here (including giving Claire more to do and showing off her sarcastic edge).
Much of that comes down to Danny and Davos, and whether you’d like to think of them as symbolizing an unrealized crush or simply brothers in arms, their connection has a force that’s been missing on the Danny side of this show (the Meachum side continues apace with some good if brief and kind of creepy, Joy-Harold material), and instantly adds a new dimension to Danny’s return to New York City.
This season of Arrow was pretty fucking awesome overall. I enjoyed it more than Season 5, almost reaching Season 2 levels of excitement. I loved it!
I only had ONE problem with it, and that is the way the separation of the group was handled. I liked the separation itself, I think it shakes things up and changes the relationship dynamic, which makes it interesting... but I don't like the reasons they came up with to justify such changes. It's ridiculous that Oliver is made out to be this terrible leader and the whole argument with Diggle was terrible, even him doesn't seem to know why he is upset.
Honestly though, that doesn't really affect the season in my mind, especially seeing the payoff on these last episodes, with everybody worried about Oliver getting caught. Oliver's "farewell tour" made it pretty clear that he turned himself in to clear the others - and the public reveal finally came (but unlike Iron Man, Oliver was taken straight to jail). Really curious about how they will deal with this next season, especially seeing as every time a season starts with Oliver not being an active vigilante, it doesn't take long until he suits up again. Going to be trickier this time.
I enjoyed watching the relationship of Earth-2 Laurel and Quentin all season. These actors work so well together, and Katie Cassidy is extremely good in the doppleganger business. Quentin's death sucks, but it didn't really hit me that hard, I guess because I half expected it due to the spoilery news that came up some time ago about Paul Blackthorne leaving the show. Plus, let's face it, things happen in that hospital - I think Sara has grounds to sue.
Last but not least, while Laurel screaming at Diaz and essentially "saving him" sucks... it creates a situation where even though this guy lost his empire and the heroes basically "won", he is not dead or incarcerated and very likely will return with a vengeance. I like this and would love it if he was the big bad again next season, making his arc huge. Diaz was a very cool, intimidating villain despite only being a crime boss - I find this fits Arrow quite well. It does seem weird that he can hold his own against Oliver - I was thinking that maybe there's more to him we don't know (like those mythical assassins he mentioned?) but they made a deal of showing that his thing is boxing. There's certainly more to expand on that character with the writers leaving that door open.
Season 2, in my opinion, was just a little bit too much of everything. Too many twists, too many side storied, too much violence. On the other hand it lacked in mystigue. The implied story of the evolution of an AI into independence degenerates into the old story of the search for immortality. With the upper echelon having the upper hand because of their money. As for the violence in this season: I don't think it was nessessary. In S1 the violence shown by the guests towards the hosts made sense to underline that human thought of them as toys, as a lower form of existence. After all, a host can't die so what do we care. Now it seems violence is just there to be there, everything has to be bloody. And we have a load of muscle packed, stupid security that gets shot down at every instance.
While watching further and further I wondered how this could ever generate into a third season. To be honest I am totally fine if the ending of this season beeing the end of the show. A kind of open ending where you can let your imagination fill in the rest. We know that a third season is already confirmed and the post credit scene of the final episode layed the foundation. But I am not sure it would be a direction that interests me.
I loved it!
I am not the musical guy. I do not like the music, it feels so soft - so mainstream - so "happy everywhere" or "sadness overload".
And I think that musicals should be watched live in a theatre and not in a movie, because the story, songs etc. are written to be watched live. Just like movies should not be performed in theatre.
But I have to admit: Les Misérables was great! The actresses and actors were amazing, the music wonderful. But you have to watch the movie with good headphones - or if u lucky with a good sound system. :o)
The acting of Anne Hathaway was amazing. Big love! Just watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzNVmZfNoa8
The interpretation and renewed songs are perfect. Just Russel Crowe potential of singing was not the best, but it did not bother me at all. One of my favourite scenes / sing parts by the way is this clip. Sorry for the subs there:
http://youtu.be/q29OOI6Y6ig?t=1m38s
So even if you are not into musicals, give recommend to give it a try and you might get surprised and you gonna like it.
9 out of 10 points for this "movie". But if you didn't like the two youtube links I put here - you better won't watch the movie.
Wow. Just wow. One of the most touching episodes of the series so far and one of the best ones. Fatherhood. I swear the parent-child drama gets me every time. I really appreciate the writers for this episode. These deep episodes that can as well be lived in real life are those that I like the most. You could say that superhero shows are those that you see to escape from the darker truths of life, to laugh and enjoy. But I certainly love that they put the focus on truths and life matters that are sometimes avoided in real life. While it is true that Maggie's story was incredibly sad, I'm playing the devil's advocate here. His father's reasons were incredibly plausible. however, his conclusions were terribly wrong. What I don't get is the "I was afraid you'd have a hard life so I made it harder". terrible. I'm certain the political aspect of it could've been handled better but I loved how Maggie stood for herself and got some closure. However, Maggie not wanting kids is gonna ruin their relationship. with all this focus, I don't forsee a happy future for them.
The Mars plot was outstanding. Any episode with J'onn J'onzz is a good episode for me but this one was the cherry on the top. That Chevy was just badass and he listens to Britney. I loved the departure scene like "get in loser. we're going to Mars". One of my favourite scenes was when J'onn's dad recognized him. Gutwrenching. Getting his dad back to his life...Lovely. Btw, Kara driving that Chevy in Mars while listening to Britney Spears being all sassy and quoting Bugs freaking Bunny was the best thing ever! That ligheardteness was needed.
Every emotion felt real, the CGI was great and that staff was brilliant. The action was so cool and J'onn's backstory is too precious.
Amazing and heartbreaking episode overall. it felt like I was watching a whole another show. what annoyed me a bit was that every white Martian took a human form even if they haven't ever seen one. Can't wait for next week!
what a way to start off the season. The cinematography and music were amazing. And thus far it has been but tonight's episode was beyond. The shot of Kara lifting that submarine gave me BvS vibes in terms of scenery. It really looked like movie shots. The visual quality improved a lot since the previous years.
And was I the only one who noticed that Lena's accent was all over the place? She even changed it throughout a sentence I didn't notice this last year. She was amazing nonetheless. That little heart she sent to Kara was so sweet. She basically bought a big-ass company just to work with her best friend.
The Alex/Kara scene in her apartment was absolutely brilliant. Melissa and Chyler were outstanding that scene, not to mention the "Kara Danvers is my favourite person. she saved me more times than Supergirl ever could. So just think about that while you're trying to get rid of her", amazing delivery. And that Alex/Jonn scene at the end. Just wow. "stop, don't cry. If you cry, I'm gonna cry and then everyone here is gonna know that we actually can cry". I'm so happy she asked Jonn to walk her down the aile. I nominate Jonn to father of the year.
Although Kara embracing her Kryptonian heritage rather than her human frontcover would be an interesting angle to follow, I don't wanna she that sunshine being that sad. She's basically going through Oliver's motions in season 1, isn't she?
And that Edge guy is the new Maxwell Lord.
Anyways, amazing way to start the season. I loved that they showed Kara's dark side, but I hope she gets over it. Mon-El has just been a guy you dated for 4 months, Alex is your sister, don't let her out because of that.
Arrow awesomeness. The episode felt so S1-S2 like. I love this brutal dark Arrow. I'm gonna miss Slade so damn much. Flashbacks helped to fill the gaps and get a better understanding of Slade's motivations. Once again, Manu proved that he's the best Slade Wilson ever. This guy is a legend and deserves his own show.
The Slade-Joe stuff was fantastic. hñJoe is a godamn psychopath! I love him! He slit someone's throat when he was what, 12-13 years old? And how devastated Slade looked after that. I got a bit nostalgic with the flashbacks. Seeing Shado again was lovely, even if she was only as a Mirakuru-driven ghost. Slade's slowly descent into madness was so well done. It was great to know how he spent those years after Lian Yu. The bamboo sticks scene with Oliver will always be one of my favourites and seeing it again while he trained Joe was a great touch. I'm expecting William to get targeted by Joe any time soon.
"Oliver Queen is alive". Not gonna lie. Laughed harder than I care to admit. I missed that line so damn much, lol.
Seeing Oliver straight up murdering like 12 dudes just made me realize how much I need him to go back to the field. While in last episode Slade was particularly brutal, it was Ollie's time in this one and he delivered. He went full on John Wick. I need Slade and Oliver going on beast mode. Nonstop slaughter. Btw, I loved the shadow on Ollie's eye in the "eye for an eye" scene. Another bamboozle made in Slade. Classic.
On the bright side, Slade's plotting wasn't wrapped up so there's a chance we get to see him. Plus Grant! That got me so excited.
I was so so excited for Richard Dragon. He got little to do but I loved his presence. He sold it to me with that villainous voice. That and his mannerisms sold it for me. I love Kirk's performance. He reminded me of Chase in his chat with Dig.
I'm glad John finally told them and it was nice that everyone supported him. I really loved the ending shot of Dig's hand trembling over the GA suit.
Taken 4: Slade Wilson Edition. Manu Bennett gives me life. He's goddamn perfect as Deathstroke. Holy shit, that hallway scene! Speechless. Best. Fight. Ever. That slaughter fest a la John Wick. Really loved the gun-sword combo. Words can't begin to describe how I'm feeling right now. More like uncomprehensible noises while I jump around my room.
"When the Jackals took my son they didn't count on who his father was". That delivery. I loved it. "Don't make this man angry", well, too late. That deadly rampage is what I need. I will watch a whole hour of Slade murdering people. He needs to be given a spin-off. Manu Bennett is a pleasure to watch.
"I ask you just to trust me on this one, kid". Boy, did I miss this! The chemistry between these two. I got goosebumps. Just like old times: the mentor and the student. Team Lian Yu. I could feel the tension. Mirakuru or not Slade slaughtered his mother, but at the same time, Oliver acknowledged the Slade he met on the island.
Despite being anticlimactic, the Vigilante subplot was extreme compelling. I wasn't expecting him to reveal his identity so easily but now Dinah has an arc of her own. Her reactions were on point and sold the story perfectly. Props to Juliana. She's awesome. Btw, she suited up I like 15 seconds. There're a lot of characters on the show and it's easy to leave them in the background but now everyone has an arc of their own. Way to go.
I love agent Watson. She's the most competent and qualified detective this show has ever had. She's breathing on their necks.
Of course the plot thickens. As soon as Nylander appeared I knew Joe was the boss. I kind of feel bad I didn't realize it sooner. After all, like father like son. Btw, next episode looks insane. I need more Slade in my life. Those flashbacks were on point. I loved that they showed us how Slade was as a father. Amazing episode.
I've seen more than a few films of the era, and none of them equal what was done here. The story is not original. It could, in fact, be considered a remake of Singing in the Rain, but it is so much more.
Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo were fantastic! They would have both been silent stars. They didn't need dialog to express themselves. I am, of course, anxious to see OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies just to see them both in a talkie.
They couldn't have picked better support than John Goodman and James Cromwell. I have seen both many times and consider them outstanding actors. They brought their talents here and no one could have done it better.
I would be remiss if I didn't give props to Uggie, who payed The Dog. I'll have to check out Mr. Fix It to see more of him.
The cinematography was brilliant, and the music sublime. I have no doubt that I will see this film many times. In fact, I wish it would come back to the theater so I could see it there.
Kudos to Michel Hazanavicius for an outstanding film. I am really hoping to see more of his work in the future.
From the opening number, that nearly stops the show before it starts, Cabaret lets you know what it's all about. The devilish Master of Ceremonies prances and preens and welcomes the audience to the performance with a sinister, almost knowing grin among the ribald revelry over which he provides. Here is your escape; here is your distraction, but what you are running from is never truly gone. The show, literally and figuratively, features a reflection of its audience, and as broad and exaggerated and whimsical as that reflection grows, there's still a palpable strain of darkness running through, that may be pushed off to the side, but never truly avoided.
Such is the journey of Sally and Brian, who stumble into each other's life, each escaping into the joys of hedonism, of la vie boheme, to escape a certain brokenness at their core, an attempt to outrun the little thoughts gnawing away at them, to fill the holes in their lives with liquor and sex, or invented fathers and dreams of stardom. There's a sadness at the heart of Sally Bowles, belied by her free-spirited whimsy and the breezy air with which she carries herself. And Brian too, though more of a Cipher, finds himself wrestling with his own feelings about his sexuality, with a guilt at what he deems to be deviance in a culture where a group utterly intolerant of his lifestyle, and his friends, are growing in power and influence. Each can only run for so long, can take refuge in one another for so long, before realizing that as wonderful as it can be, it's a temporary escape, a fantasy, that they would not be able to sustain in the long run, and losing that dream is as sad and sweet as it is necessary.
It's easy to see the influence Cabaret has had in the nearly fifty years after the film version's release. Rent invokes its intoxicating and yet very fraught depiction of the bohemian life, of individuals on the outskirts of society finding each other, finding patrons who wish to dabble in that life without plunging too deep, and the dizzying highs and crestfallen lows that come with it. Chicago borrows its brilliantly deployed conceit of contrasting the personal dramas between Sally, Brian, and their cohort, with cuts to numbers and routines on the cabaret stage that give shading to these events.
That stage, and the way the film preserves the theatrical nature of its source material, is a key to what makes Cabaret so enthralling. Director Bob Fosse's camera is intimate in Brian and Sally's scene, where it lingers with the pair or sits still and watches the two of them just breathe and be together. But there's an amazing energy in the cinematography during those stage performances, with swift cuts and zooming shots that dart around the stage to give the viewer multiple vantage points of the amazing phantasmagoria the Master of Ceremonies has constructed.
And that Emcee, who guides the audience on screen and on the other side of it through this gaping glimpse at Berlin in the 1930s, ties the film together. Joel Grey oozes an almost sinister charm, and shines in every moment he's on the stage. In particular, his rendition of "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes" achieves so much, and conveys so many layers in a production that could easily have come off as farce. There's a ridiculousness to a man singing a love song to an erstwhile ape, but the subtext of it, made text in Grey's last whispered line communicates both the genuine melancholy that underlies the phenomenon he's signing about it, a sense that he's playing the audience, stoking their expectations and feeding them the chops their licking their lips for, but doing so purposefully, in a manner so playful and subversive that the meaning goes over their heads. It's a captivating, devastating number.
And those two adjectives capture the whole of Cabaret as well. Those performances, from Liza Minnelli's extraordinary voice, to Fosse's crisp yet fluid choreography, to the use of light and color renders it stunning in the moment, with a twinge that comes after when the rush of the performance ends and its embedded barbs linger. That's the sense of Sally and Brian's story as well, a pair of individuals who take each other to different places, who find peace and solace and even joy for a time, but who feel the lingering scars, and see the pain on the horizon.
Sally and Brian are Berlin in the movie, enjoying the present and trying to look away from what the future holds. As the film ends, and that slanted reflection shows more and more Nazi armbands in the audience, in the society that needs a cabaret to forget about what's coming, that current of horror that lurks beneath the joy and happiness and bombast on the stage makes it all the more salient, as much now as it did when the haunting spectre of World War II was only a generation ago. Cabaret is a feast for the eyes and ears, that harbors a looming sense of dread for both a country and couple, even as it revels in their excitement and affection as they stand, with their hearts full, drinking in life and love.
I've seen this movie 3 times now and have a ticket purchased for Wednesday night again in the Dome. I LOVE IT. Favorite movie of the year and well on it's way to one of my faves of all time. The music wonderful, the cinematography is gorgeous, the script is hilarious and everything just keeps moving. I love every single scene. I think it has the chance to be the fourth movie ever to win Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actress and Actor. Man, is this amazing!!!! See immediately then buy the soundtrack!!!!
UPDATE: Saw it for the 6th time yesterday at the Chinese Theater in IMAX. I. Still. Love. This. Movie. !!!!!!
UPDATE: Took my fam to see it the other night for #7. Still great!
UPDATE: Saw this last night at the Hollywood Bowl, making it my 8th time on the big screen. And I gotta say, my friend and I had an epic epic nightmare of a battle making it to the show and we were 20 minutes into movie when we got there but this movie is so special and spectacular it got us out of our funk instantly. Love it! Then I went home and watched it on blu-ray to hear the commentary man oh man I love this movie. Okay done with updates now that it's on home vid.
I don't think I have ever been in love with a movie, like I'm in love with La La Land. From the first few seconds, till the very end. This movie had me and didn't let go. My english vocabulary is not good enough to express my love, heck, my dutch vocabulary is not good enough to express it. This movie is everything.
It is beautiful, happy, magical, romantic and I could go on for a little while longer but I won't. I wasn't expecting it to be this musical-y, but I mean, I love musicals so I'm not complaining. I think this is a great "musical" because there isn't non stop singing, so people who don't like musicals might like this one because it's more "subtle". I can only imagine how much practice went into all those dance routines and don't get me started on the impressive piano skills Ryan Gosling showed us.
Something that really impressed me as well was the way they filmed everything. It's a very creative and different way, which I really enjoyed and think makes this movie a great inspiration for those who love film and camerawork themselves. The build up and flashbacks and stuff were really cool as well. Yea I really enjoyed that. Also, the storyline, which does so much for a movie, was so great.
This is normally the part were I talk about the actors, but seeing that there were mainly only two actors and they were both amazing (I do think tho, that Ryan Gosling his character wasn't a very challenging one for him because we have seen him in roles like these before. Mixing it up with all the dancing, singing en piano playing though, you got something quite different and I loved it), I'm going to skip this part and say that you should watch this movie, do nothing more, just watch it, enjoyed it and love it.
I liked it better when the four DC shows aired on four different nights, but whatever. I guess the people at the CW wanted to boost the ratings by airing Legends after The Flash.
I can't believe that they made an episode about the Legends trying to convince George Lucas to become a movie director. That is so wild. I love it. And there were so many awesome references to Star Wars, like "You're our only hope" and the trash compactor.
Rip forgot who he is and to be honest, I hope he won't remember anytime soon. I like the team as it is.
Every now and again I randomly remember that Arthur Darvill played Rory Williams on Doctor Who. Apparently, he was destined to play characters travelling through time and space on a ship.
It was such a small moment, but I love the trope of a super intense scene with people running or fighting cutting to a shot of someone riding in an elevator with soft music in the background. It always makes me laugh, no matter how many times I've seen it.
"- I have an idea.
- So this would be a new milestone for you then."
Professor Stein went in and took no prisoners, huh? How did Mick manage to recover from such a savage burn?
You know what the sad thing is? I didn't appreciate Laurel enough when she was on the show. This episode only reminded me what a big hole she left when she died. And damn, it made me emotional.
I actually love the "characters are in a simulation and start to realize that something's not right" storyline. This was really well-done.
I wondered where the newbies were during last night's episode. I'm not that fond of them, but I'm glad they included them here, if only for the sake of continuity.
Kara and Barry's high five in the middle of a fight was just the cutest thing ever. This is one of my favorite relationships in the Arrowverse. They are absolutely adorable together.
Holy cow, that spaceship looked freaking amazing. And I'm happy that the Waverider and Nate made an appearance. I guess we'll see everyone in the Legends part of the crossover. Maybe we'll finally get some actual alien ass-kicking.
Oh, and how could I forget? This is the 100th episode of Arrow! Congrats! It hasn't always been smooth sailing, but I'm still happy for the show. It was great to see all the characters we've lost along the way and remember how much Arrow has changed since the pilot. Some of the changes have been for the better. Some for the worse. But all in all, I still enjoy the show and episodes like this remind me why I fell in love with it in the first place.
Artemis, you little traitorous bastard. I knew there was something wrong with her. That explains why Prometheus didn't kill her in the train and how easy it was for her to cut him in the arm. I never cared a lot about her character, but now I'm intrigued. What is she all up to? Is she still blaming Ollie for her parent's death? Is Prometheus her brother? Or is she just trying to trick him? I know it's impossible but this Prometheus plan seems taken from the "Malcolm Merlin textbook to killing and framing others". That's his kind of strategy.
Vigilante was cool, though. It's pretty obvious he's Adrian Chase. I'm now wondering whether Vigilante has something to do with Prometheus. I mean, is it him too or is he under his orders. He didn't even hurt Evelyn. Perhaps Prometheus told Vigilante not to hurt her because she's his double agent.
I simply love Thea and Quentin scenes together, very emotional. Their father-daughter relationship is so real that gives me goosebumps. My heart breaks every time he mentions Laurel. All he's been through. He lost his daughters, and now that little b**** and his Prometheus partner frames him. Stop hurting Quentin.
And the references to season one. That "twitch, and I open your throat" had me on internal combustion. They mentioning Slade and his bamboo sticks brought good memories. Even more since we know he's coming back for the crossover. I hope it's not a flashback, but Slade in the flesh. Our prayers have been heard. Quentin and Thea mentioning Moira and Laurel was a nice touch considering the crossover too.
Overall, it was a good episode, full of action and fight scenes, although some of them were weird, like Curtis'. Why does he get beaten every episode anyways? He's kinda annoying. Wild Dog is growing on me.
I so enjoyed Felicity's "hanging around out" joke. It made me giggle. I also enjoyed how everyone ignored her.
Now, let's just wait for the amazing crossover. I can't wait to see Slade back again. That's good times!
You know who I love? Alex Danvers. Any episode where she gets her own scenes is a good episode in my book. Which is kind of sad, actually - she's a main character after all, arguably the most important one after Kara, and yet practically all of her storylines revolve around her sister. The showrunners promised that we would get to know Alex more this season and see more of her personal life, so I'm waiting for that. And I'm really happy that they acknowledged Alex's problems with Clark because she's right. 12-year-old Kara was willing to take care of baby Kal, but Clark, who was a grown-ass man when her pod landed, immediately dropped his cousin off at the Danvers family's doorstep like a stray puppy. Alex has dedicated her whole life to Kara while Clark has been flying around, showing up once in a blue moon. What's up with that, by the way? It took him like 5 seconds to get from National City to Metropolis. Can't they hang out for dinner every Saturday or something? Why do they see each other so rarely?
It was fun to have Superman on the show. I really liked the way Tyler Hoechlin portrayed him.
Clark and Kara are adorable dorky dorks and I love them.
My favorite scene in this episode was the one where Cat told Kara she was leaving. I genuinely cried. I love Cat Grant and the show won't be the same without her. She'll return at some point, of course, but she'll probably never be a main character again, which sucks. Just like Kara, I don't like change, and I will miss Queen of All Media deeply.
Winn is absolutely hilarious. His reaction to Clark and J'onn arguing was the same as mine. And Star Wars references are always great.
Project Cadmus is super shady. I mean, I already knew that, but damn. They're much better villains than Non.
James is the boss, which is... actually good in my opinion? And it makes sense? Give him his own storylines outside of being Kara's (former) love interest. It'll be good for both of them.
Okay, this was actually... pretty good? My expectations for this show have been so low for such a long time, but this episode, as well as the previous one, pleasantly surprised me. Maybe there is hope for Arrow after all.
I don't really care about the new team, at least not yet, and I would sell my soul to get Laurel back, but Ragman was very cool. The Bratva flashbacks are a lot better than last season's crap, and Diggle's storyline is interesting too. The fight scenes were pretty great.
The scene in which Thea offers Quentin a job was heartfelt and emotional.
I don't hate Felicity as a character, and I don't really dislike Olicity either. The only thing I truly despise is the unnecessary drama that the writers kept throwing their way in seasons 3 and 4 instead of focusing on the actual superhero stuff. Seeing Felicity's new boyfriend - who is just painfully bland, by the way - made me want to roll my eyes. You can just feel Oliver's manpain and all the angst that we'll have to suffer through when he finds out about Detective Boring Dude. I mean, you can say what you want about Olicity, but the truth is, if they had just gotten married last season, we would've been spared a lot of nonsensical bullshit and maybe season 4 would've been more bearable. Let's hope the showrunners don't lose their way again and stop turning this show into some crappy rom-com. I really want this season to be good.
Well, here's hoping Barry finally learns not to mess with the damn timeline. Also, apparently not one episode can go by without him explaining time-travelling stuff while drawing lines on a board.
Alchemy looks like poor man's Nazgul, but he's sufficiently creepy and powerful. He'll probably be a pretty compelling villain once we learn more about him.
Can Barry and Iris please stop being so darn cute?
Caitlin has her Killer Frost powers! Does this mean she's going to sport white hair and a tacky leather outift like her Earth-2 counterpart? Or talk like she went to Leonard Snart's school of unnecessarily drawing out words? I sincerely hope not. Maybe she could put on a blue dress and belt out "Let It Go" in the musical crossover with Supergirl? Because I'd be okay with that.
I hated seeing Cisco sad, but I'm glad he and Barry made up at the end of the episode. His gauntlets were pretty sick too.
Oh, and it seems that Draco Malfoy changed his name and moved to Central City to be a metahuman expert? I guess things didn't work out for him in the Wizarding World.
This was a really emotional episode with a lot of angst and sadness, and yet the thing that upset me the most was that baby Sara is baby John now. I'm not okay with this. Give Dig his adorable baby girl back right now.
I actually really liked this season premiere. The characters of this show are obviously not as seasoned as their Walking Dead counterparts, but their turmoil and confusion and slow fumbling development only add to enjoyment, imo. In the previous season Maddie was the sensible one, now I think they've handed the button to Travis. Alisha is the next level of idiot though, opening her gob and bragging about their super cool boat to a fucking stranger. I hope she'll be the one to suffer the consequences, but usually other people pay for someone else's mistakes. Also I'm really confused why water isn't an infection transmitter that too stats the fever and kill you. Come on, zombies clearly rot and bleed in it and therefore infect it, and people who swim under the surface definitely get it in their eyes. Obviously you need to suspend your disbelief with the entire concept of zombies because their existence (at least in the way they are portrayed here) is entirely disproved by logic, but both shows in this universe have a clear and established rule of how a zombie is able to kill you. It's obviously not the contact of their teeth with your flesh, but the effect of any organic matter belonging to them (in the case of a bite - saliva) getting into a living human' bloodstream. Considering that, the water should be infected and dangerous. That being said, walkers underwater is still kinda cool.
9.5/10. There are times when I feel jaded as a viewer. When it seems like despite the breadth of films out there, that I know most of the tricks, to where while I can appreciate a film's achievements in sort of a detached way, when I can even be engaged and invested in something, it doesn't necessarily reach me in the way that movies did when I first started watching them. The scope of appreciation has widened, but the emotional resonance feels muted, because I can't help but see the strings.
And then a film like Room comes along.
And Jack sees the expanse of sky for the first time. And Joy hugs her parents after not seeing them for seven years. And Robert can't even look at his grandson. And Nancy tells her daughter that she's not the only one whose life was destroyed. And Joy tells her mother that if she hadn't been taught to be nice, she might never have gone with Nick. And there's a supreme, heartbreaking look of guilt on her face when a reporter asks if she should have given her son up while in captivity. And Jack walks in on his mother's suicide attempt. And Nancy hears her grandson say "I love you." And Jack sees a real live dog, and makes a real live friend, and cuts his hair to give his mother his strength.
And I wince and I laugh and I cry and I gasp at this beautiful, devastating, intimate, life-affirming film. This is why we make movies. I love popcorn films, with the fights and flashes and epic feel, and I love the big dramas, with their scope and their sense of grandness and the talent on display, and I love those classic film comedies that mix the absurd and the irreverent and the memorable into a single hilarious package. But the films like Room simultaneously so small and so personal, yet so powerful and affecting, have a special place. These are, as Robert Ebert once put it, the empathy machine that is film working at peak efficiency, taking us into the lives of people who have suffered and been unfathomably wronged, and carries us with them as they carve out a way forward.
I didn't know I wanted a film that feels like a cross between Oldboy, Life Is Beautiful, and Boyhood, and yet the elements Room shares with each--the sense of isolation, the loving way in which a parent tries to distract their child from a continuing tragedy, the slice-of-life, impressionistic depiction of a young boy's innocence--come together to form something absolutely tremendous.
That last facet of the film, the fact that it filters the entire experience through young Jack's eyes, is a stroke of brilliance. There's a matter of factness, a certain directness or even blitheness to the way children experience the world. Using Jack as the lens through which Room tells its story renders those events not only realer, but plainer, imbuing them with the unvarnished perception of childhood. The way the film is able to get into Jack's head, to allow the audience to view these horrors and steps to recovery through his eyes, is its greatest strength and most impressive achievement.
By the same token, Brie Larson as Joy deserves all the accolades she's received for her performance here. While still a prisoner, she carries herself with such an air of both utter resignation and quiet resolve, someone who's been beaten into submission but carries on with whatever she has left. And once she returns home, the guilt that consumes her, the anger that she has for the world that kept turning without her, are palpable in every moment without fading into overwroughtness.
The film can essentially be divided into those two halves. The first is the story of Jack and Joy in Room, of the way that Joy makes unbearable circumstances livable for her son, the way that she copes and shields Jack from the horror around him, and how Jack strains and struggles to understand the idea of the world beyond those four walls, to where he can, eventually, help the two of them escape. The second half is far less intense, but still endlessly intriguing and affecting. It's a quiet domestic story about how people recover from that sort of trauma, both Joy who feels the opposite of survivor's guilt and second guesses herself, and Jack who is exposed to a big scary world, the depth and breadth of which is entirely alien to him.
But throughout both halves, there is such a pure emotional truth in each moment, from the simple joys that Jack enjoys within the home he doesn't realize is a prison, to his anger and resistance at having that fantasy shattered, to Joy's dispirited but resolute attempts to keep him happy and healthy, to the realistic, painful difficulties parents and children face when rebuilding a family seven years after a tragedy, to the wonder and fear a small boy has for what lies beyond the garden gate, and the unmitigated joy at every step taken toward some cobbled-together normalcy. Room is a beautiful, heart-wrenching, intensely personal film, that takes an unflinching yet uplifting look at how people cope and come back from the worst that our world has to offer.
