The first and only film appearance of Greek theatre star Kyveli.
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Steven Spielberg
“Before I go off and direct a movie, I always look at four films. They tend to be The Seven Samurai, Lawrence of Arabia, It’s A Wonderful Life and The Searchers.”
Whose Film Is It Anyway
Is a film the writer’s vision, the director’s masterpiece, or the editor’s creation? Let’s break down the filmmaking process – from script to screen – and tackle the ultimate auteur question: Whose film is it?
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Olivia Colman
“If the script’s good, everything you need is in there. I just try and feel it, and do it honestly.”
Cinema: Bridging the Gap Between the Industry and the Academia
Cinema: an art form, a cultural artefact, and an ever-evolving industry. But what happens when the academic world meets the practical side of filmmaking? Let’s examine the divide between theory and practice, film schools and universities, and explore how this gap can be bridged. Plus, a thought-provoking question at the end – because your perspective matters!
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A Man and a Woman (1966)
The black-and-white parts of the film were due to budget constraints and not for artistic reasons – yet it won 2 Oscars!
Jean-Luc Godard
“A film should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order.”
Afrique 50 (1950)
The film was shot without French approval in Ivory Coast and, although it was intended for French schools, it was banned until the 1990s. Its director, René Vautier, was sentenced to one year in prison.
Die Alone (2024)
In a post-apocalyptic world full of zombie-like creatures, a young man with amnesia who looks for his girlfriend, seeks help from a survivalist woman.
The Last of Us (2023) meets Memento (2001). Writer/director Lowell Dean’s Die Alone is a Canadian indie whose story hits the spot. The plot is solid and develops in an intricate, non-linear way to increase the suspense and masterfully lead you to an unexpected destination. What enhances this journey is Carrie-Anne Moss, who shines throughout every scene and pulls up Douglas Smith with her.
The film’s budget, though, restricts the visuals. The shots are not daring enough, and I presume that budgetary constraints prevented Dean from shooting his film as intended. That would explain the editing, which arguably eliminates or attempts to eliminate weaknesses and mistakes. The intentions, though, remain intact, and the journey is thrilling and sad. Wait for the ending…
Some time ago, I mentioned that films like this will show up more often than not. Nowhere (2023): https://kaygazpro.com/nowhere-2023/, The End We Start From (2023): https://kaygazpro.com/the-end-we-start-from-2023/, and Humane (2024): https://kaygazpro.com/humane-2024/, are films that tackle environmental issues and the climate crisis and artistically appeal to our emotions and reason to stop hurting our planet because, first of all, we shouldn’t, and, secondly, it won’t hesitate to wipe us out in the most horrible manner.
So, let’s respect the signs and do our best not to hurt our Earth as well as one another.
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Presence (2024)
A family moves into their new home, but they soon realise something else is there with them.
A ghost story seen through the eyes of a ghost. In scriptwriting, amongst others, we usually ask: what does the hero/ine want? What does the hero/ine need? That said, when the hero/ine is a ghost, can we ever tell with certainty? And then, how much of that information do the filmmakers feed back to people? And, of course, how do they do it?
Look at aliens. They and their politics reflect us and our politics. Ghosts, though? How can we tell what they really want or need? Come to think about it, I don’t think we’ve ever got right what aliens would have wanted or needed, but then again, I don’t think there have been any legitimate known encounters, so there you are.
Going back to Presence, in David Koepp’s script, it seems that the family is experiencing the presence as much as the presence is experiencing the family. The family can’t tell what the ghost wants, but then the family doesn’t know what they really want either, which is the film’s subplot. There are two camps in the house that don’t seem to communicate properly. And that is something the ghost senses and knows better than anyone else, how it affects the daughter. How does that affect the plot, though? Well, stick for an hour and twenty minutes and you’ll find out. Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, and West Mulholland do a great job in front of the camera.
From a filmmaking point of view, Steven Sonderberg’s protracted and uncut shots add realism by making the audience an omniscient narrator following the action wherever it is taken, but restricting it to what the heroes know. It is a slow-burn paranormal thriller—not horror—carrying a lot of relatable drama that only climaxes in the end – Liu’s outburst will cut your breath short.
Great watch for all horror fans, regardless of what you think of it in the end.
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The Damned (2024)
A small 19th-century Icelandic fishing village faces horrible consequences after it decides not to help a foreign sinking ship.
Gripping and haunting! Frost, endless nights, battle for survival, alienation… This is what people had to face – some still do – back then. The far North was and is a beast that cannot be tamed. To a large extent, though, things have evolved now. How about then, though?
In small towns and villages, myths and tales live longer than generations of people do.
Like any other folk and/or period horror, The Damned pays tribute to the time it portrays. That means the conditions of that era, as well as the way its people perceived it, acted, and reacted to it. Psychology was in its infancy, or not even born at all. As for sociology and its theories, they didn’t make it up there until modern times. So, what are people left with? Hundreds of years of superstitions, myths and tales that defined their lives and reality as they knew it. In this case, the guilt relates to the myth of Draugr. Looking back at ancient times and their myths, emotions, feelings and psychological states gave birth to gods and monsters that felt the same way humans did, so personally and collectively it was OK for humans to feel that way, too. Draugr’s vengeance only makes sense as vengeful people would react the same way.
From a filmmaking point of view, writer Jamie Hannigan and co-writer/director Thordur Palsson brought to life a story about people’s extreme hardships, delving into the consequences of doing what seems right, knowing what you know. The script is tight, the cinematography will make you freeze, and the acting will make you empathise with the heroes’ and heroines’ sufferings. Odessa Young, Joe Cole, and the rest of the cast do an excellent job in front of the camera, but extra credits go to the rest of the crew that made this film possible.
The Damned is impactful. While watching it, I thought of Psychology and Sociology theories, and there were glimpses where I thought to myself: Have we gone too techy, sophisticated, modernised, and reasonable to believe that beings significantly older than civilisations are only in the sphere of imagination? Before you answer, remember that three gods dominate this world, and people fight each other in their name.
Anyway, I cannot even begin to imagine how the early settlers survived, let alone evolved and made this lovely country that it is today. If you had to endure all that… how would you not feel damned!
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Seven (1995)
New Line producers were hesitant about the film’s ending, but Brad Pitt stated that if they changed it, he would not participate.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
A group of psychiatrists studied 400 films and chose 126 psychopathic characters. Anton Chigurh, portrayed by Javier Bardem, was selected as the most accurate depiction of a psychopath – Business Insider, January 2018.
Wim Wenders
“Final cut is overrated. Only fools keep insisting on always having the final word. The wise swallow their pride in order to get to the best possible cut.”
Jerry Bruckheimer
“Get on the floor, start working. Get any job you can, just to get in the door. Once you get in the door, if you’re good, you’ll move up so fast, you won’t know what hit you.”
A Different Man (2024)
An aspiring actor with a severe deformity goes through a radical transformation, and his dream to act turns into a nightmare.
A Different Man, a different film! And how could it not be different? It’s A24. The day they make an ordinary film will be the day they have gone wrong. The Kafqu-esque isolation and internal darkness, combined with the unpredictable indie way of storytelling that blends realism with thought-provoking development is what writer/director Aaron Schimberg and lead actor Sebastian Stan achieve – both executive producers.
A Different Man creates a concoction of antithetical feelings inside you. It makes you smile while your heart is pounding. It makes you bitter when the moment is sweet. And when the choice is clear, it makes you question it. Think about it… What if someone started replacing you in your life’s story, and you became a stunt in your own life?
The film poses philosophical questions about identity, acceptance/rejection of oneself, and societal perspective. The old Freudian id, ego, and superego fight comes face to face with “careful what you wish for.” Are we defined by how we look, by how we perceive ourselves, or by how we perceive people’s perceptions? Or is it a mixture of everything?
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It’s What’s Inside (2024)
A group of friends reunite for a pre-wedding party, but the night takes the most unexpected turn when one of them reveals what he has brought with him.
It’s not a film until it’s edited – Michael Kahn.
The new kind of filmmaking that works miracles. So… metric editing, rhythmic editing, fast-paced editing, slow-paced editing, match-cuts, snappy cuts, and then… protracted shots, colourful shots, close-ups, great soundtrack, funny dialogue, realistic dialogue, great story, even greater plot, realistic performances, surrealistic development… You name it! Until all goes to hell!
It’s What’s Inside is such great fun to watch! To the point where everyone reveals who they really are and what they are capable of. And then it’s fun as much as it is a thrill. Everything you wish doesn’t happen; it happens to the extreme.
Writer/editor/director Greg Jardin, director of photography Kevin Fletcher, and composer Andrew Hewitt understand comedy and thriller separately and audiovisually unite them in unexpected ways that will make you laugh while keeping you on the edge of your seats. The animated pictures, the decisions each character makes, the roles they choose to take, the way they act, and the way they react to the new data every time make It’s What’s Inside one of the most entertaining rides Netflix has to offer.
Brittany O’Grady, James Morosini, Gavin Leatherwood, Nina Bloomgarden, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Reina Hardesty, Devon Terrell, David Thompson, and Madison Davenport understand Jardin’s vision and perform remarkably in front of the camera.
Entertainment aside, though, the film raises a thought-provoking philosophical aspect: identity! What is identity? Who are we? What makes us who we are? Are we all right with whoever we are or think we are? Are we happy in our own skin? What is happy anyway? Consequently, if there were no consequences, how far outside the law and ethics would we go to satisfy these suppressed legal and moral restraints that have bound us ever since we can remember ourselves?
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Vadakkan (2025)
A paranormal investigator travels to Kerala to probe the horrible deaths of the cast and crew of a reality show.
Great story and thick plot, damaged by the visual effects. Writer Unni R and co-writer/director Sajeed A bring to life an entity from Dravidian mythology, but before they do so, they build it up beautifully! The paranormal investigator and his background, the love interest, the murder case, and the unknown entity that wreaked havoc all build up to the culminating moment where the entity is fully unleashed and the people have to face their worst fears.
Something between Hollywood, a standard reality show, and a non-shaky found-footage formula, Vadakkan impresses with its examination of what is at stake and how that stake is structured and delivered. Sajeed A pays tribute to the folklore element and visually empowers traditional aspects of a culture that the vast majority has long forgotten, and that comes face to face and annihilates modernity and technology.
Ultimately, its downfall is the visual effects that offer nothing new to the paranormal subgenre. They are not as effective as the story’s build-up, yet Vadakkan is somehow saved by the brilliant performances of Kishore Kumar G., Shruthy Menon, and Merin Philip.
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Francis Ford Coppola
“When you make a movie, always try to discover what the theme of the movie is in one or two words. Every time I made a film, I always knew what I thought the theme was, the core, in one word.”
28 Days Later (2002)
The production received permission to shoot on England’s busiest motorway (M1) one Sunday morning from 07:00 – 09:00, with the police clearing traffic as much as possible. Using 10 cameras, they managed to capture 1 minute of footage.
Mother’s Instinct (2018)
A horrible accident will tear two women apart, and the consequences will echo to their families.
One of the best modern Hitchcockian thrillers you have ever seen! Based on Barbara Abel’s novel, writer Giordano Gederlini and writer/director Olivier Masset-Depasse bring to the screen a thriller that will constantly have you on the edge of your seats. Losing a child is the parents’ worst fear. There is no coming back from that, and Masset-Depasse projects that loss and initial suffering in a way that you want the film to end right there and then. But it doesn’t.
From then on, the plot thickens by adding mystery to the insurmountable drama. Gederlini, Masset-Depasse, and editor Damien Keyeux build up the suspense on the already existing drama and advance the story to a psychological thriller, toying with delusion and paranoia, sometimes informing you more than the heroes and sometimes less. So, what you know or you think you know changes from sequence to sequence, and all you can do is accept the worst-case scenarios, unable to do anything about them, regardless of how much you want to. And then there is the ending… But that is something you will have to experience without any warning.
Veerle Baetens, Anne Coesens, Mehdi Nebbou, and Arieh Worthalter have great chemistry. Baetens and Coesens, especially, become victims of love—that feeling that is meant to unite. Yet it can be the source of the most unfathomable absurdities we have ever encountered or caught ourselves doing when we experience it to the extreme. The same applies to hatred.
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Last Breath (2025)
The true story of a team of deep-sea divers who race against time at the bottom of the North Sea to rescue their partner after a horrible accident.
Captivating but not without flaws. This is a fascinating as well as terrifying story. Alex Parkinson’s Last Breath is the adaptation of the homonymous documentary Last Breath (2019) – also co-directed by Parkinson – which, for better or for worse, was more gripping than the film. As you can understand, the comparisons are inevitable. In an attempt to avoid them, though, I will focus on the film.
While the script has all the ingredients for success, the film’s pace and rhythm are problematic. It is a film with a documentary’s pace, but Hollywood’s “last-minute” saves. Understandably, that causes some confusion. Having said that, though, there are moments that it will cut your breath short. The wonderful cast has something to do with that. Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu, Finn Cole, Cliff Curtis, Mark Bonnar, MyAnna Buring, and the rest of the cast do an incredible job in front of the camera, which adds extra points to the film’s credibility.
If you don’t know the story, you will find it as extraordinary as if you did. No one can wrap their head around how that happened. If you believe in miracles, this is the closest you will encounter, even if it didn’t happen to you. Definitely worth your time regardless of the documentary’s success. You might even reevaluate life, death and everything we know (or think we know) about them.
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The Monkey (2025)
When twin brothers find an old monkey toy as kids, a curse follows them for years, and people around them die in the most unexpected ways.
Interesting concept, solid execution, but pointless. The trippy shots and editing in the trailer can get one hyped up. It makes one wonder what on earth is happening in that film and why such a gory spectacle is received with such reactions. Watching the film itself, one will still wonder the same. Great shots, great acting, humorous deaths, plenty of blood, and loads of paranoia should have been accompanied in the end with at least an inclination as to why this is all happening. I am not talking about spoon-fed Hollywood narrative, but some sort of material so that we, the audience, start toying with ideas, conspiracies, extremities, and plenty of discussions for the days after. In all this mayhem, at least, we have great performances by Theo James and Tatiana Maslany.
My verdict: Nice watch, full of laughs and gore until the end credits. Maybe Stephen King’s short makes more sense, but the co-writer/director’s script does not. Osgood Perkins needs to be careful now. Longlegs (2024) was a fresh breath of old-school horror with a disappointing ending, and The Monkey feels like it has no ending or purpose at all. His creatively disturbed brain needs to establish why he does what he does, the expectations he raises and the audience he raises them to. Producer James Wan has all the skills, but has ended up a crowd-pleaser no matter what he does.
Regardless, I, for one, look forward to his next film. Hopefully with NEON again.
Thanks for reading!
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Havoc (2025)
A corrupted police officer races against time to find a politician’s estranged son, before more corrupted police officers and the Chinese mafia do.
Gritty and action-packed, yet so flawed. Writer/director Gareth Evans, the man behind epic action films, such as The Raid: Redemption (2011): https://kaygazpro.com/the-raid-redemption-2011-action-thriller/ and The Raid 2 (2014): https://kaygazpro.com/the-raid-2-2014-action-crime-thriller/ unites with Tom Hardy (Walker) and the result is not what you would expect, unfortunately. Havoc becomes the latest proof that if the script is not solid, it does not matter how solid the action is. And the action is solid. But that’s the only positive the film offers: well-directed action. That and Jessie Mei Li, who stands out with her performance.
The characters have no chemistry whatsoever, the dialogue is extremely poor, the gimmicks are countless, the hordes of people who are sent to kill Walker and the rest are worthless, the levels of improbability in most of the sequences are unfathomable… and more!
It’s a shame so much effort was put into making such a gritty action film without a solid script. There are many negatives to discuss, but I’ll stop here. Evans is an amazing director, and, hopefully, Havoc will be food for thought for him, and he’ll surprise us again pleasantly with his next film.
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The Art of Cinematic Transitions
Ever wondered how movies move from one scene to the next without missing a beat? From simple cuts to iconic transitions like the match cut in 2001: A Space Odyssey or Edgar Wright’s rapid-fire montages, cinematic transitions shape how we experience stories.
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Bollywood: The Heartbeat of Indian Cinema
Bollywood is more than just an industry – it’s a celebration of life, emotions, and culture. From its roots in the silent era to its modern global dominance, Bollywood has created magic through vibrant storytelling, iconic music, and larger-than-life action. Why does it embrace song and dance like no other? What’s the deeper meaning behind those epic fight sequences? And how does it continue to reflect the heart of India while inspiring audiences worldwide?
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Inception (2010)
In Japan, to minimise confusion, during TV screenings of the film, a reference was shown in the top left corner of the screen indicating which dream level the action was occurring on.
Jane Campion
“Performers are so vulnerable. They’re frightened of humiliation, sure their work will be crap. I try to make an environment where it’s warm, where it’s OK to fail — a kind of home, I suppose.”
Tyler Perry
They didn’t open the door. I had to cut a hole in the window to get in. You close the door on me and tell me I can’t, I’m gonna find a way to get in.
Richard Linklater
“There are a million ideas in a world of stories. Humans are storytelling animals. Everything’s a story, everyone’s got stories, we’re perceiving stories, we’re interested in stories. So to me, the big nut to crack is to how to tell a story, what’s the right way to tell a particular story.”
Sinners (2025)
In 1930s Mississippi, twin brothers return to their hometown, leaving their troubled past behind, but an unprecedented evil eagerly awaits the sunset.
A feast for the eyes, the ears and the soul. A lot has been said about Sinners, but there is something more that I would like to add. The standout elements are the immaculate writing and directing (Ryan Coogler), film score (Ludwig Göransson), photography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw), editing (Michael P. Shawver), and production design (Hannah Beachler). The list extends to the outstanding work of every other department that contributed to this film, as well as the exceptional acting of Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Yao, Li Jun Li, Delroy Lindo, Saul Williams, and the rest of the cast.
The combination of blues, Irish folk, and visuals that elevate the soul offers that aforementioned feast for the senses. While the horror and music genres have intersected in films such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and The Lure (2015): https://kaygazpro.com/the-lure-2015-drama-fantasy-horror/, Coogler’s approach offers a fresh perspective. It is visceral, dramatic, humorous, and carries a lot of history on its back. It’s an excellent combination, and all the cast and crew deserve all the praise in the world. And, yes, the anachronistic sequence that smashes through the fabric of time and space is the epitome of satisfaction of the senses. As said above, though, there is something I’d like to add.
I conducted a small survey of my own and asked fifty people about the film’s message, examining racial representation and its connection to character and story development. Not surprisingly, the answers were contradictory and vague. While the story and character development were clear enough, their relationship to racial representation created the ultimate confusion. The reason I did it is that this film was made with so much effort and love by people from all over the world, yet its message is divisive. Something that begs the question: Why?
Regardless, it is a highly recommended cinematic experience that offers a lot more than escapism.
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A Touch of Zen (1971)
An entire village was constructed for the film and then left for 9 months to acquire natural wear and tear.
Warfare (2025)
The true story of a Navy SEAL platoon that got hit in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006.
The closest thing you’ve been to a war from the comfort of your own cinema. Steven Spielberg’s D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan (1998) shook us to our core when it was first released, and to this day, nothing has topped it. Warfare comes really close and sends shivers down your spine.
Following the success of Civil War (2024), A24 and writer/director Alex Garland, along with writer/director and Iraq War veteran Ray Mendoza, create a war film like anything you’ve ever seen. They consult experts and actual veterans, incorporating real tactics and language to enhance the film’s realism. Not only that, but Mendoza was one of those veterans. The film’s promotion is: “Everything is based on memory.”
This is inarguably one of the most brutally realistic docudramas you’ve ever seen in your life. It’s going to make you avert your eyes. It’s going to take your breath away. It’s going to make you wish they would stop screaming… The slow-burning first half hour is the calm before the storm that you will audiovisually experience after that in real time. You will see, hear, and feel their excruciating pain and agony. D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn, Aaron Mackenzie, Alex Brockdorff, Finn Bennett, Evan Holtzman, Michael Gandolfini, and the rest of the cast do a magnificent job in front of the camera. Extra credit goes to the rest of the preproduction, production, and postproduction team for accomplishing this film.
A24 consistently pushes boundaries to the extreme and is one of the world’s most valuable film-producing machines. They have the know-how. They know when, where, why and how to choose what they do. They also know who must helm each project and who will be in front of the camera. They know the trends and rules, and they bend them in extraordinary ways. Warfare is a prime example. Past the end credits, it will make you think about how they will top that and what comes next, but stay tuned. There is a lot more coming…
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John Patrick Shanley
“If you put someone in a room with no script to direct, they’re just going to sit there. Writing scripts is the execution for a show. Then the director takes that and hires people. It’s like trying to build a house without any bricks. You need a great script.”
Amélie (2001)
While shooting outdoors, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and the crew cleaned everything – from trash to graffiti – to maintain the fantasy atmosphere of the film.
The Rocket (2019)
None of the actors are professional. They all use their real names, and almost every scene is a reenactment of real-life events.
Simon Beaufoy
“I’m very lucky. I actually like screenwriting. I rarely feel a sense of doom going to my desk.”
Hollywood vs. The System: Art, Power, or Smokescreen?
Hollywood loves to tell stories about fighting the system – The Insider (1999), Spotlight (2015), Dark Waters (2019), and more. But isn’t Hollywood itself a Goliath with its own secrets? Is it a beacon of justice, part of the system, or a smokescreen for its own flaws?
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Wolf Man (2025)
A man takes his family to the farmhouse he grew up in, but an unexpected attack by a beast starts turning him into a beast himself.
Atmospheric but also problematic. There are pros and cons, but the cons pile up higher. The photography is amazing – haunting, eerie, dark, and imposing. Expressing both worlds visually wasn’t easy, but Stefan Duscio’s cinematography did a brilliant job connecting them. The sound department also deserves much credit for completing that connection with sound effects and reverse utterances that will captivate you. The result wouldn’t be complete, though, if Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner’s performances were not solid. They do an excellent job in front of the camera, so all departments deliver the desired audiovisual outcome. What’s the problem then, yeah?
Well, it isn’t Leigh Whannell’s directing. Most sequences are intriguing… but that is not enough because as a whole they are not as effective. The problem lies in his and Corbett Tuck’s writing (his wife). Everything happens too fast for the audience to absorb. The transformation, escalation and climax blend into one, leaving the viewer somewhat indifferent. Furthermore, despite some innovative details, as a story, it has nothing new to offer. It pays a solid tribute to The Wolf Man (1941), but not all cinematic intentions come to life as they were supposed to. The sum should always be more impactful than its parts, and, in this case, Wolf Man isn’t.
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Confessions (2010)
The first Tetsuya Nakashima film that is not a comedy – and it was a box office hit!
Olivia Colman
“If the script’s good, everything you need is in there. I just try and feel it, and do it honestly.”
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Watch McManus’ (Stephen Baldwin) reaction when Redfoot throws the cigarette in his face. According to the script, it was supposed to be thrown at his chest. Baldwin’s shock is genuine, and the shot was included in the film’s final cut.
The Woman in the Yard (2025)
A mysterious woman appears out of nowhere, sits in a broken family’s yard and delivers cryptic and threatening messages.
Starts off great and then rapidly deteriorates. Second collaboration between director Jaume Collet-Serra and Danielle Deadwyler after Carry-On (2024): https://kaygazpro.com/carry-on-2024/ – a totally different film. So, what’s to be expected here?
From a filmmaking perspective, Pawel Pogorzelski’s cinematography is brilliant—camera angles, framing, lighting—all of it! Deadwyler (Ramona), Okwui Okpokwasili (Woman), and the kids perform brilliantly. The sound design and the editing serve the narrative the way they are supposed to. That leaves us with Sam Stefanak’s script and Collet-Serra’s visualisation.
The story is solid. A mysterious woman appears out of nowhere and delivers cryptic messages. Who is she? What does she want? What is the family’s secret? All that unfolded quite well until they decided to disclose the answers. The way it was decided to provide those answers killed the mystery as much as it killed the horror. And then, it resurrected it and brought it back as the epitome of incoherence. While there is an explanation, standard Hollywood narrative dictates confusion before oversimplification with the sole purpose of the “WOW” effect. That also killed the drama, by the way.
There is nothing good to say past the first act, so I’ll leave it here. Jason Blum keeps producing films that make zero sense, and their rationalisation is borderline dangerous. Where they are getting at follows a similar mentality with The Beast Within (2024): https://kaygazpro.com/the-beast-within-2024/. The filmmakers imply one thing, but connect it to another. And that “another” is significantly scarier and far more concerning, and shouldn’t have been connecting to the “one.” See for yourselves if you want to waste your time.
Thank you for reading!
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There Will Be Blood (2007)
When the producers approached Dillon Freasier’s mother, the kid playing Daniel Plainview’s son (Daniel Day-Lewis), to appear in the film, she wanted to know who this… Daniel Day-Lewis was. When the production showed her Gangs of New York (2002), she was scared by his performance and refused. To change her mind, they showed her The Age of Innocence (1993).
We Live in Time (2024)
A car accident brings together two people who fall in love, and despite numerous tribulations, they try to make it work.
A24 strikes with a heavy drama. Non-linear narratives become more and more common. Sometimes they work, sometimes not. It all depends on whether the narrative demands it or if it is all a pretentious attempt by the filmmakers to impress you. Which one is We Live in Time, then?
Writer Nick Payne and director John Crowley have no intention to pretend. They aim to torture you psychologically. From the opening sequence, Bryce Dessner’s piano warns you that something hurtful will occur. Something that will break the heroes’ hearts almost as much as it will break yours. And soon you find out. From then on, all the back and forth, tackle life’s bittersweet moments, but knowing what will happen makes it only bitter, sour, and borderline unbearable.
Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh nail their parts, offering the realism that Payne and Crowley intended. And while I said earlier that they removed the “sweet”, I may have lied. There is always something sweet, and tons of worth-living moments in life defy the gloom and doom of this world. After all, every cloud has a silver lining.
This is where I leave it. There is no reason to delve into effective cinematic techniques that make it work. All you need to know is that it does work, and you will feel it when you catch yourself short of breath. Again and again.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share and subscribe. If you enjoy my work and dedication to films, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.
Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
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Anora (2024)
A young stripper impulsively marries the son of a Russian Oligarch, and when his family finds out, an odyssey to get the marriage annulled begins.
Great film with unprecedented hype. I was waiting for the Oscars to write about it, and, unfortunately, I was right. NEON knows what they want from their films. It is a solid American production and distribution company, and, like A24, its films break the rules occasionally. Anora is a pleasant and entertaining watch with some performances that stand out, as well as some editing and photography techniques. Writer, director, casting director, editor, and producer Sean Baker deserves much praise for his work, as he put his heart and soul into it to make everything work. Mikey Madison deserves all the praise under the sun as she too worked really, really hard for her role.
The marketing, though, is what made the film famous. To get 150 wins and 272 nominations, of which five Oscars are not something one sees every day in the film industry. Especially when you have to compete against giants, both in terms of budget and talent. Here is a representative example: Yura Borisov’s character, Igor, is a dark horse and very much relatable to humble people who have skills but rub them in your face. Borisov does a brilliant job portraying that character, but the performance is not even near the level of performances that have competed against the statuette over the decades.
Anora‘s reputation surpassed The Green Book‘s (2018) for the worst film we’ve seen at the Oscars recently, making people lose even more faith in the Academy. Statements by members of the Academy who claimed that they don’t watch whole films when they are over two hours long just made things worse.
Anora is not to be blamed, though. If you had heard nothing about it and sat down to watch it, you would thoroughly enjoy it. Now that you have heard so much and raised your expectations to the extreme, it will not be the same. Politics, by now, is deeply rooted in the arts, and rightfully, people despise what Hollywood has become—a dishevelled existence of a glorious past.
Please, don’t forget to share and subscribe. If you enjoy my work and dedication to films, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.
Solidarity for all the innocent lives that suffer the atrocities of war!
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American Pastoral (2016)
An idolised couple’s perfect life falls apart when their daughter is accused of a terrorist act.
Great story but holds its punches. Directorial debut for Ewan McGregor, who admittedly does a decent job behind and in front of the camera. As stated already, though, he holds back immensely and Philip Roth and John Romano’s script does not help much. The turmoil of the 60s had a tremendous effect on America. It was violent, bloody and the aftereffect of racism and oppression. Unfortunately, the film fails to capture that. It focuses on the relationship between a seemingly perfect couple and their troubled daughter, which relates to the turmoil. Or, does it?
The unconditional love of the father who once had it all and now loses the Earth under his feet is the film’s anchor, and McGregor captures that quite well. The audience despises Merry (Dakota Fanning) and sides with the father, who could not possibly have done more. Furthermore, Jennifer Connelly nails the role of the mother who also once had it all and slowly and painfully loses her sanity. My personal issue with this troubled relationship was the reason behind Merry’s mental state. I could not understand why she kept accusing her parents and why she ended up the way she did. Was it the turmoil that affected her or her parents? Having said that, the ending is very much debatable, too.
To summarise, the focus is clear, but why certain people are the way they are and why things evolve the way they do is unclear. Regardless, American Pastoral deserves a watch as it will transport you to a time that unfortunately shares many negative similarities to today, but will remind you that our parents’ unconditional love is diachronic and will never faint.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share and subscribe. If you enjoy my work and dedication to films, please feel free to support me on https://www.patreon.com/kaygazpro. Any contribution is much appreciated and valued.
Solidarity for all the innocent lives who suffer the atrocities of war!
Stay safe!
Tim Bevan
“Scripts are what matter. If you get the foundations right and then you get the right ingredients on top, you stand a shot… but if you get those foundations wrong, then you absolutely don’t stand a shot. It’s very rare – almost never – that a good film gets made from a bad screenplay.”
Braveheart (1995)
Mel Gibson thought he was too old for the role of William Wallace and initially refused it. However, Paramount told him that without him, they wouldn’t have funding, so… he accepted!