Kafka’s stories were once called surreal. Today, they feel like real life. Bureaucracy, dread, meaninglessness — it’s all here. This episode explores how cinema has captured Kafka’s vision of a trapped humanity, and how his nightmare might be our reality.
Image References: IMDb
The film cost only €10,000, covering expenses for sets, makeup, etc. The actors and crew worked voluntarily, resulting in an impressive outcome.
“I am the son of filmmakers. I was born with this bow tie made of celluloid on my collar.”
Being obsessed with cheating death, Dr Victor Frankenstein experiments and brings to life a creature that condemns both their fates.
Like rewatching Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein (1994), the opening sequence captivates and gets your undivided attention. Following a similar structure, the master of storytelling, Guillermo del Toro, uses a narrative that goes back and forth in time, explicating in words, images, and sounds a story we already know. But is that truly a concern? Most definitely not.
Victor Frankenstein will always be the symbol of brilliance, arrogance, hubris… and the true monster behind his creation. An inevitable hint that we are not monsters, but the God who made us… in His image. A creator who does not know what to do with his creation upon completion and does not understand the consequences… until it is too late. Mary Shelley’s masterpiece will always remain diachronically relevant for that reason: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” – Jurassic Park (1994).
From a filmmaking point of view, directing, photography, editing, visual effects, and sound effects work together like a Swiss watch. The creature itself, though, could have been more appalling in appearance. Robert DeNiro’s natural prosthetics were phenomenal, making it, arguably, the most suitable creation to date. Having said that, Jacob Elordi does a fantastic job as the creature whose story is nothing short of inspirational, heartbreaking, and forever imprinted in our hearts and minds. Despite the comparison above, the make-up department did an excellent job.
Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, and Christopher Waltz are amazing, and Frankenstein will be another great addition to del Toro’s filmography – but Branagh’s will always remain the classic for me, as I was a kid when I first saw it. Huge congratulations to all cast and crew for making such a great film.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
The most expensive production of its time, for which the largest studio in the history of French cinema was built.
The first film from the People’s Republic of China to win the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
A highly sophisticated program temporarily manifests in the real world to find a code that will allow it to stay there permanently.
Entertaining and visually impressive, but not memorable. Standard Hollywood recipe for the whole family: Model-looking actors, high-octane action, city-levelling calamity where no one dies (on screen), superficial life philosophy, and a great soundtrack synthesise a sci-fi popcorn flick, making you forget your problems for two hours and then the film itself. Despite its effort to present itself as profound, the script is simple and the narrative straightforward.
Director Joachim Rønning does the best he can with what he has, and Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Gillian Anderson, and Jeff Bridges give decent performances. While Leto manages to attract the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, that is no reason not to watch the film. It’s a decent action/sci-fi you will enjoy watching, but you will not talk about it after the end credits start scrolling. Unfortunately, in the last few years, Disney has had a knack for milking the cow and creating flops, and Tron: Ares is no exception.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
What are dreams? Why do we have them? And how has cinema captured this most mysterious of human experiences? From Wild Strawberries to Inception to It Feeds, this episode explores how films depict dreams — not as they are, but as we fear they are. With thoughts from Freud, Jung, Nietzsche, Descartes, and Plato, we ask: is cinema just a dream that speaks our hidden truths back to us?
Image References: IMDb
“Structure is the key to narrative. These are the crucial questions any storyteller must answer: Where does it begin? Where does the beginning start to end and the middle begin? Where does the middle start to end and the end begin? […] All the regular questions that face writers also face us. Where does the story begin, where is the middle, and where is the end? Each of those things is entirely up to the writer. They are the hardest decisions for any writer to make about any story, whether fiction or nonfiction. If you make the right decision about structure, many other things become absolutely clear. On some level, the rest is easy.”
In the 1970s, a young aspiring actress is invited to a blind date TV show, but one of the bachelors is a man who has been stalking and killing women for years.
Feature debut for director and lead actress Anna Kendrick, who managed to impress the audiences and critics in front of and behind the camera. The film’s inciting incident is terrifying; the build-up throughout is effective; the acting is exactly what it needs to be; and both the visual and audio match-cuts connect the non-linear narrative from the beginning to the end. It is so effective that, while you know what is going to happen, it still sends chills down your spine and makes you want him to get caught ASAP. Daniel Zovatto is brilliant, making sure his character, Rodney, is portrayed as the monster he was. Nicolette Robinson and Autumn Best complete the cast with their fantastic performances.
There is one major issue with the film that you will only realise in the end. It is a minor spoiler, but Woman of the Hour is based on real events, so I cannot not say it. The protagonist is not Kendrick’s character, Sheryl; it is Best’s character, Amy. Therefore, it becomes utterly confusing why you predominantly watch Sheryl’s life when you should be watching Amy’s. That, in the end, makes no sense.
Regardless, kudos to Kendrick for making this film, but not only that. As per IMDb, she sent all her money from the film to two non-profit organisations that support survivors of sexual abuse and violence. Hats off to her!
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
A man is invited by his ex-wife to a reunion that forces him to confront a tragic past, and it only takes a turn for the worse.
Independent, unique, and intense! Writers/producers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, and director Karyn Kusama, intrigue in the opening sequence and bring intentional awkwardness to the very first moment Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and Kira (Emayatzi Corinealdi) enter the house, as introductions begin and pleasantries get out of the way. And even then, it keeps on going… and going… and going… until it gets worse! Worse than both the audience and guests could ever think of.
The character and story develop slowly, getting to know everyone and their pasts, while not being able to shake the feeling that this reunion is a bomb waiting to explode at any moment, and that Will is going to lose the plot over what he sees and hears. The cast is also brilliant: Logan Marshall-Green, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Michiel Huisman, Tammy Blanchard, Michelle Krusiec, Mike Doyle, Jordi Vilasuso, Jay Larson, Marieh Delfino, and John Carroll Lynch play their parts the way they should do, without Hollywood mannerisms or hyperbole.
If you have not watched it, the best way is to go in cold — don’t read anything about it and don’t ask anyone’s opinion. The Invitation is one of the best psychological thrillers of the last decade. It’s been ten years, and no matter how many times I watch it, I can’t stop thinking that it is ageing like a fine wine. The drama, the thriller, the suspense, that endless awkwardness that keeps you short of breath… it all comes together so beautifully and tragically.
When the end credits start scrolling, think about the video played to the guests, how it relates to the last scene, and… the chances of this scenario actually happening in the real world.
Happy Halloween!!!
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
Eight tales of psychological, surreal, and paranormal horror captured through the lens of eight directors.
Lots with unimaginable dark secrets, rats and underground entities that long to take revenge for been seen as pestilent, dead bodies waiting to disclose horrible otherworldly truths, superficial products that promise profound personal transformation and social acceptance, terrifying art that evokes the most disturbing feelings, bottomless hopes of cheating death, collectables that were never meant to be kept, and houses that express gief and pain… What more could you ask for on Halloween?
Cabinet of Curiosities could be characterised as dark, claustrophobic, morbid, twisted, investigating, pessimistic, unscientific, and unholy. Great actors, such as Tim Blake Nelson, David Hewlett, F. Murray Abraham, Kate Micucci, Dan Stevens, Ben Barnes, Crispin Glover, Rupert Grint, Peter Weller, Sofia Boutella, Essie Davis, Andrew Lincoln, and the rest of the cast, become their characters and project the darkest side of the human psyche.
Under the watchful eye of Guillermo Del Toro, Ana Lily Amirpour, Panos Cosmatos, Catherine Hardwick, Jennifer Kent, Vincenzo Natali, Guillermo Navarro, David Prior, and Keith Thomas use their lens to capture this darkness inside us and manifest our fears through an audiovisual experience that will captivate you – especially in a time like Halloween. Every director has a unique perspective, every film has a unique story to tell, and every tale uniquely and profoundly explores fear, greed, guilt, profit, loneliness, memory, the cost of value, and the mystical and unholy world hidden behind ours.
No need to review them separately; unbiased, feel free to explore them yourselves and go in blind. Speaking of bias — and without saying I didn’t absolutely LOVE all of them — as an avid enthusiast of H.P. Lovecraft, I’ll have to admit that my favourite was Pickman’s Model. Very few have managed to capture the horrors Lovecraft envisioned, and I’ve been waiting a long time to see another director depict those evil atrocities.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
A wooden Native American outside a store, a deadly blob in a lake and a hitchhiker who refuses to die are three creepy tales that come to life from a kid’s comic book.
Creepshow 2 might not be today what it used to be back then, but hear me out. Following the success of Creepshow (1982): https://kaygazpro.com/creepshow-1982/, throughout this anthology, writers George A. Romero, Stephen King, and Lucille Fletcher, and director Michael Gornick (DOP on Creepshow) question certain taboos way ahead of their time. Class, race, revenge, respect, guilt, and punishment are only a few of the issues the anthology addresses. Here’s an example: In the vengeful Old Warrior, the old towns are dying, and the story starts with the mutual respect between two old timers who know what respect means, and the younger generation, which has never heard of the concept.
Throughout this and the rest of the stories, there are relatable thrills, horrors, and dramas wrapped in humour and the paranormal, intended to entertain, frighten, and convey subliminal messages. No harm there. That’s what art does: it expresses the way we act, react, feel, and so on. Like its predecessor, it is a concoction of so many rights and wrongs that… there aren’t any rights or wrongs. It is what you watch and enjoy with your friends or alone.
That creepy humour might not be much nowadays, as I said earlier, but for people like me and all of us who grew up with these stories, we still remember putting on the VHS and getting frightened. That applies to both Creepshow and Creepshow 2. So, watching it now, it only brings back memories of how we used to feel as kids. Little did we know that the true horrors would come later on in life…
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
Five gruesome stories that come out of a kid’s graphic novel, bringing to life dark secrets and horrors.
Can’t get more classic than that! Written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romeo, nothing can go wrong – especially in the early 80s. There are no wrongs here: everything is justifiable, allowed, permitted, and accepted.
I’ll keep it short, so here’s what we have: High-class society, resurrection, revenge, and death on Father’s Day. A meteor is infecting a farmer and his farm. A vengeful husband who gets his revenge on his wife and her boyfriend. A man-eating thing locked up in a box for years and now released. Persistent cockroaches that keep coming back, multiply, and… “creep up on you”!
Creepshow is gruesome, bloody, flawed, funny, bad, entertaining, fantastic, creepy, cringe, and precisely what you need to watch and/or rewatch this Halloween. There are some big names of the 70s and 80s attached, such as Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Stephen King himself and more. And always keep an eye out for the subliminal messages behind each story.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
“I try to just make what I want to make or what I would want to see. I try not to think about the audience too much.”
Superman is more than your usual superhero. He’s a question: What if someone with nearly unlimited power still chose kindness? Still chose us? But he’s also a warning — about faith, about fear, and about the loss of belief in something greater. In an age of gods and monsters, Superman remains the one figure we still need to believe in. Because if he falls, we fall with him.
Most young actors knew nothing about what happened at Iwo Jima, as this part of history was not taught in Japanese schools.
During a snowstorm, a woman travels alone in search of a lake, only to come across a kidnapping of a young girl.
I’ll start with the main 3 reasons why you should watch it: Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, and Marc Menchaca. Menchaca has a long history of playing evil villains; he’s damn amazing doing so, and Dead of Winter is no exception (or, is it?) He’s astonishing, nonetheless. The pleasant exception is Judy Greer, who, here, is even more villainous. It’s unbelievable how this is the same actress as the suffering mother in The Long Walk (2025): https://kaygazpro.com/the-long-walk-2025/ (Give this woman the Oscar already). As for Emma Thompson, she plays the lonely, resourceful old woman like no one else, without Hollywood mannerisms or hyperbole. She’s phenomenal! Lastly, keep an eye out for Laurel Marsden, who performs really well. Now, as for the film itself…
Writers Nicholas Jacobson-Larson and Dalton Leeb, and director Brian Kirk, create an action/thriller that expresses the beauty of American cinema — even though it’s also a Canada-Germany co-production — that avoids Hollywood gimmicks, builds an emotional subplot as its foundation, and develops a thrilling plot. There are expected twists and turns, but the unexpected, breathtaking, and heartbreaking one lies in the subplot, which drives Barb (Thompson) to do what she does and connects to the plot so beautifully. It is what makes life bittersweet, worth fighting for, living for, and dying for. Respectively, whatever everyone does has a reason, and that reason is justifiable, blurring the line between “good” and “bad” person, and villain and antihero.
Give it a go and you won’t regret it. This is a survival story, and Barb says the way it is, or the way it should be, anyway: “[…] We don’t know what’s comin’. We never really do, but it don’t matter. We don’t quit.”
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
A dog will do anything to protect its sick owner from supernatural forces when they move into a rural, haunted house.
Unique perspective, great camera work and editing, and an amazing lead actor. So, one at a time… In 2017, David Lowery wrote and directed A Ghost Story (2017): https://kaygazpro.com/a-ghost-story-2017-drama-fantasy-romance/, where a ghost exists through time and space, observing humans live their drama. Last year, Steven Sonderberg offered us Presence (2024): https://kaygazpro.com/presence-2024/, which showcases the ghost’s point of view and its efforts to intervene and alter the course of events. Original and effective in its own way, but not necessarily scary.
This year, it is Indy the dog that takes the torch with Good Boy. According to IMDb, the co-writer, editor, producer, and director Ben Leonberg took three years to finish the film because “well, it’s a dog actor.” Oh, it’s his dog, by the way. The film’s uniqueness does not stop there, though. Leonberg does something that raises eyebrows and warrants examination: he cuts, hides, or obscures human faces. Why do you think that is? Don’t let it go unnoticed.
There are some beautiful/haunting/eerie shots in the film that cut from the action to Indy’s reactions. And while actions and reactions are shot separately and have nothing to do with one another, the editing defies that temporal and spatial difference, creating this amazing yet also terrifying illusion: That Indy reacts the way he does to the lurking supernatural forces. Also, Leonberg’s editing creates some dreamy/trippy sequences that will pin you down. They unite the past and the future, projecting to Indy — and, consequently, to the audience — what happened in this house and how that affects the present.
There are some sub-plot and story-depth issues, but they won’t affect your perception of the film. Huge congratulations to Leonberg for making Good Boy, and enormous respect and love to Indy — and every Indy out there — for being in our lives.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
“When I’m writing, it’s about the page. It’s not about the movie. It’s not about cinema. It’s about the literature of me putting my pen to paper and writing a good page and making it work completely as a document unto itself. That’s my first artistic contribution. If I do my job right, by the end of the script, I should be having the thought, ‘You know, if I were to just publish this now and not make it . . . I’m done.”
Haley Joel Osment (Cole Sear) got the role for three reasons:
1. He was the best,
2. He was the only boy at the audition wearing a tie,
3. When director M. Night Shyamalan asked if he had read his role, the dialogue went as follows:
– Osment: I read it three times last night.
– Shyamalan: Wow, you read your part three times?
– Osment: No, I read the entire script three times.
A young woman receives a box from a strange visitor, and her night turns into a living hell.
Flawed, incoherent, and forgettable. A broken heroine, a mysterious stranger, and an hourglass that marks the countdown… What is it? Who’s “we”? How do they do it? More importantly, why do they do it? And, ultimately, what will eventually happen?
The premise is solid. The paranormal blends with personal insanity/paranoia, and if Polly (Dakota Fanning) felt broken and alone before, the Earth will seem an entirely empty place after that. The things we hate, love, and need, and the “boxes” we put them in, can serve as a metaphor for the way we structure our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and, to a large extent, the way we lie to ourselves about them. But deep down we know… our unconscious truly knows. A place that knows about us more than we possibly could. Well, what better way to deal with something we can’t comprehend or are scared to face than to see it through the lens of the paranormal?
Vicious is that case, but as it is Hollywood’s child, it cannot — and does not — avoid extreme hyperbole to the point that it just becomes nonsensical. Unfortunately, while that was obvious from the trailer, the film corroborated it. Dakota Fanning is great for the role, and she has been amazing ever since she was a child. She never fails to impress, as she is a beautiful person, a woman, and an actress.
The same cannot be said for the film, though. Writer/director Bryan Bertino, the man behind one of my favourite horrors – The Strangers (2008) – made an incoherent and disjointed film with some suspenseful moments that are severely overshadowed. I want to stop here because there is almost nothing positive to say except for the honest intentions behind it. It is the side of Hollywood that takes no risks and relies on the formulaic. Shame.
Takeaway? We cannot unload our problems on others, hoping that they will go away. We just can’t.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
We binge medieval violence from the safety of our sofas — but why? It’s not just the swords and castles. It’s what they represent. Honour. Clarity. Meaning. Perhaps we’re not obsessed with history… Perhaps we’re obsessed with the idea of mattering.
“The director’s job is to know what emotional statement he wants a character to convey in his scene or his line, and to exercise taste and judgment in helping the actor give his best possible performance. By knowing the actor’s personality and gauging his strengths and weaknesses a director can help him to overcome specific problems and realize his potential. But I think this aspect of directing is generally overemphasized. The director’s taste and imagination play a much more crucial role in the making of a film. Is it meaningful? Is it believable? Is it interesting? Those are the questions that have to be answered several hundred times a day.”
Although the film takes place in the summer, it was shot in the winter.
A college student returns to her hometown, takes a babysitting job, and becomes the target of a masked serial killer.
Halloween without 80s, synth tracks, suburbia, babysitters, imbeciles, and massacre is not Halloween! Here’s co-writer/director Brandon Christensen’s film in a nutshell: the standard, unoriginal yet effective opening sequence sets the tone. Predictable development after that: Introduction of the main characters and their problems, ensuring the killer’s return for more bloodshed. Then, an increase in suspense, thriller and horror by implicating the whole community and their deaths, and enhancing the “whodunit” mystery!
So, is there anything new? No! Do you need to watch it? Absolutely yes! The heroine hears a sound outside, so she leaves the house with the door open to go to the forest! Oh, she also goes to the dark basement, saying, “Hello?”. Really?! Anyway, it is Halloween, and films like Night of the Reaper keep the “celebration of the dead” fresh and relevant, making your problems fade away for just a little while. Shudder does a brilliant job with horrors that don’t require too much thinking and involve a lot of blood.
Its downside is the twists. They bring Scream vibes to the party, but even they have ended up being a visual fatigue, as they try too hard to be smart for their own good, undermining the audience’s intelligence.
Back to Night of the Reaper, forget its flaws and have a blast with it. It’s Halloween!
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
V/H/S comes back with an anthology of trick-or-treats straight from hell.
The franchise never disappoints. The standard narrative – one main story (backbone) from start to finish and multiple stories that interject – keeps the audience entertained and thrilled, making them want to know how the main story will end and, at the same time, watch the numerous stories that each one of them offers a different flavour to the selected theme. In this instance, Halloween.
Numerous directors, diverse horrors, and found-footage, VHS, B-movie vibes… all for your entertainment to enjoy with your loved ones or alone. The characters are crafted to be disposable, so you can genuinely relish their cinematic demise – OK, not all, and in some cases, certain deaths are disturbing. None of the stories should be taken seriously, despite the serious effort put into the film. Shudder oversees a franchise that is meant to be gruesomely entertaining, with plenty of horror conventions observed, and a talent pool of writers and directors who accomplish this entertainment in truly diverse and creative ways.
While I’ve watched all of them, I have only reviewed a couple of them, but all of them are worth it:
V/H/S/94 (2021): https://kaygazpro.com/v-h-s-94-2021-horror-mystery-thriller/
V/H/S/Beyond (2024): https://kaygazpro.com/v-h-s-beyond-2024/
The nights you decide to stay in, have fun with them. It’s Halloween, after all. It’s fun, right?
Rrrriiiighttt???
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
Documentaries like Earthlings, Food, Inc., and Undercover: Inside the Bunker show horror while asking you to feel it. Cinema reflects the world… it reflects who we are… And who we could still become.
Image References: IMDb
Tony Wilson’s journey from the 70s to the 90s and Manchester as the epicentre of music.
Realistic and trippy as much as funny and dramatic. Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, director Michael Winterbottom and lead actor Steve Coogan (Tony Wilson) create something extraordinary. The life of a man who led the music industry in the UK, and more specifically in Manchester. The greatness of the phlegmatic British humour is what makes films like this work. Coogan delivers this deadpan performance that almost no one else can on that level. Next to him, Lennie James, Paddy Considine, John Simm, Andy Serkis, Peter Kay, Sean Harris, Simon Pegg and a lot more, offer plenty of laughs and unfold a surrealism that, for better or for worse, is actually reality-stranger-than-fiction kinda situation(s). Most of the things you see in the film are real-ish and are things that you’ll think to yourself, “you couldn’t make that up.”
That kind of humour is what characterises Britain and speaks volumes about the culture; the way people create situations, deal with situations, laugh, cry, celebrate, mourn, and, overall, deal with life’s quirks and foibles. Winterbottom and Coogan nail all these in 24 Hour Party People and offer an original spectacle that, alongside films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Human Traffic (1999), Snatch (2000), Mean Machine (2001) and more, characterise the transition from the 90s to the 00s for British Cinema.
24 Hour Party People is a chronicle of the key events that unfolded in the music industry in Manchester over two decades. It evokes a complex mix of emotions surrounding the artistic and business aspects, featuring outstanding performances and eye-opening situations.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
In one dinner scene, Leonardo DiCaprio almost broke character due to the racist dialogue. Samuel L. Jackson pulled him aside and said, “Motherf*cker, this is just another Tuesday for us.”
“Don’t get seduced by your own stuff. Don’t get high on your own supply. The hardest thing as a filmmaker is when you’re watching a film that you’ve worked on for several years. You know every frame so intimately that holding lots of the objectivity of a new viewer who has just seen it for the first time is the hardest thing. Every aesthetic decision you make — and you make thousands of them every day, have to — in theory, must be done from you being a blank slate.”
Regardless of what you think, Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal make an excellent duet, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson and Daniella Pineda go toe to toe, offering spectacle. Definitely worth your time!
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
A retired boxer wants to make a comeback for the title and goes through extreme and illegal ways to cut down on weight, affecting him and his relationship with his team.
Emotional and, on occasion, painful to watch. When we talk about the early, experimental Sean Ellis (director), we talk about Cashback (2006) and The Broken (2008) – two films where what you see is a lot more than meets the eye. They are definitely my two favourite films of his. Mainly, it’s because of the darkness they hide in. Then, he went somewhat conventional, yet still brutal and original: Metro Manila (2013), Anthropoid (2016), and The Cursed (2021): https://kaygazpro.com/the-cursed-2021-fantasy-horror-mystery/. Conventional or not, Ellis’ stamp is on all of those films.
So where does The Cut stand? Like most of his films, The Cut is not for everybody. Despite appearances, boxing and what led Boxer (Orlando Bloom) to follow that path is the subplot. The plot revolves around his determination to make it to the ring, to cut down on weight and be there no matter what. And the “no matter what” is the plot. Writers Justin Bull, Mark Lane, and Ellis surface the deep trauma (subplot) that has made Boxer who he is, as well as the dark passenger who steers the wheel behind his motivation. There is a reference by Boz (John Turturro) to the journey and the destination, dismissing the journey and praising only the destination. Intentionally or not, The Cut is all about the journey, discounting the destination.
Regardless of what you read about it, it is definitely worth your time. Bull, Lane, and Ellis have crafted a dark and thought-provoking film that explores trauma, will, action, and consequences. With Bloom, Turturro, and Caitriona Balfe on board, you’re in for a mesmerising experience. Extra credits have to go to Bloom, who lost 52 pounds (23+ kg) for the role and got ripped.
Upon watching it, think about it. Are we consciously guided by our will or unconsciously by a past that, unbeknownst to us, has been in the driver’s seat the whole time?
P.S. Unintentionally, this review was written back-to-back with a film that has a very similar theme, Him (2025): https://kaygazpro.com/him-2025/. See how two similar themes can be so dissimilarly made. The beauty of cinema!
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
Why do high-profile killers in film often listen to classical music during violence? It’s not just for style — it’s about power, class, and control. The scariest monsters don’t growl. They quote Nietzsche… and hum Mozart.
Image References: IMDb
If you ask me what directing is, the first answer that comes into my head is: I don’t know.
The deposition given by Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) takes place in the actual courtroom of Jackson County, Mississippi, where the real Dr Wigand testified.
An up-and-coming quarterback is invited to train with a legend, only to discover the dark secrets behind his fame.
The constant need for heroes. What we want vs. what they need. The sacrifices they make vs. the hot dogs we overconsume while judging them… Co-writer/director Justin Tipping and the producers behind it – yes, Jordan Peele amongst them – created an artistic portrayal of what is and isn’t inside someone’s head whose ambition is such that they are willing to sacrifice everything… until they realise their ambition was probably not even theirs… and there is nothing left to sacrifice. And somewhere there, scattered in all three acts, social commentary about race, society, people, individuals, peer pressure, press pressure, steroids and illegal drugs, idolatry, fake role models, the occult, distorted biblical references, identity loss, and the pursue of a success that is nothing like it looks permeate reality and its incalculable perceptions, disillusioning its existence.
Think of Whiplash (2014), but mostly Black Swan (2010) in a mixture of stylised music video with colourful symmetrical and asymmetrical shots, edited like a music video with experimental touches that aim to express the paranoia behind fame, using American football and all the darkness behind the scenes through apocryphal depictions. And if you find that last sentence confusing, wait until you watch the film. What is for sure is that Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers and Julia Fox do a fantastic job in front of the camera.
There have been numerous negative reviews about it, as well as some somewhat positive ones. Don’t take anyone’s word for it – not even mine. Watch it and be the judge. Is it an audiovisual experimental metaphor that will one day be praised or a narratological mess?
P.S. Regardless of whether you praise the film or not, Kira Kelly’s stylised cinematography and Taylor Joy Mason’s meticulous editing need to be acknowledged.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
The film cost under €1,000, was shot in 16 days at 8–10 hours per day, and although it sold only 3–4,000 tickets, it became a cult hit, especially online and on pirated DVDs.
“If somebody asks me about the themes of something I’m working on, I never have any idea what the themes are… Somebody tells me the themes later. I sort of try to avoid developing themes. I want to just keep it a little bit more abstract. But then, what ends up happening is, they say, ‘Well, I see a lot here that you did before, and it’s connected to this other movie you did,’ and… that almost seems like something I don’t quite choose. It chooses me.”
Lazy voiceovers, rushed edits, hollow promises… they don’t just insult your taste — they insult your time. And when the platforms keep hitting you with ads nonstop, ask yourself: Is this the kind of message… or product… I really need?
In a dystopian America, a group of teenage boys must keep walking until only one of them is left.
Great concept and execution, despite certain unrealistic flaws. Writer JT Mollner, the man behind the script of one of the best films of 2024 (even though made in 2023), Strange Darling (2023): https://kaygazpro.com/strange-darling-2023/, adapts Stephen King’s story, and his script is tight and engaging – but also exaggerating (we’ll get there). Director Francis Lawrence, the man behind the “The Hunger Games” franchise, returns to his element, portraying a dystopian America where teenagers must once again “save” the country by doing something extraordinary. This time, it is a lot less flamboyant and puts “heroism” into a different perspective.
The heroes are not heroes, and the masses cannot be saved by watching young men dying for no apparent reason. The fact that they have to do their biological needs in front of everyone speaks volumes. What they do is not motivating and can’t bring any change whatsoever. It’s an idle effort of a fascist regime to keep people occupied with a “reality” that only brings pain, misery and despair. And that’s just one aspect of the film’s drama. The second significant aspect is that those young men attempt to befriend one another and encourage and support each other, knowing that “at the end, there can be only one.” So, all this death for nothing.
King, Mollner and Lawrence do not reveal the year this takes place or what happened that caused the country’s desolation (some kind of war). The Running Man (1987/2025), The Hunger Games (2013-Present), The Purge (2013-2021), and Battle Royale (2000) are all examples of dystopian eras where people find entertainment/catharsis in disturbing games/procedures, an attempt to achieve something that will never happen. They are not solutions, but rather extensions of the decadence they undergo.
While the film is solid, the young men’s “achievement” is an exaggeration. There is very little to no chance for people to achieve walking for so many days constantly, especially if they have soiled themselves. Regardless, you can turn a blind eye to that and enjoy the thrill and drama that King, Mollner and Lawrence offer.
All actors do a fantastic job in front of the camera and deserve a massive round of applause. The one that, for me, stole the show, though, and brought tears to my eyes, is Judy Greer. Her role as a suffering mother is heartbreaking and encompasses the film’s underlying message about parents seeing their kids marching to their deaths. Absolutely devastating! And Greer should be nominated for an Oscar!
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
The film debut of actress Emily Watson, which earned her first Oscar nomination.
“What you learn from that first, and I don’t call it ‘trial by fire,’ I call it ‘baptism by fire,’ is that you are going to have to take all of the responsibility, because basically when it gets right down to it, you are going to get all of the blame, so you might as well have made all of the decisions that led to people either liking it or disliking it. There’s nothing worse than hearing somebody say, ‘Oh, you made that movie? I thought that movie sucked,’ and you have to agree with them, you know?”
The film won dozens of awards and was included in “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” by Steven Schneider.
An extremist man and his son, who is forced to follow him, commit their most extreme act and find themselves in a standoff.
The power of independent American cinema! Feature debut for writer/director Christian Swegal, who made a film that provides a lot of food for thought. He mounts the camera on his shoulder and follows the action wherever this journey takes him. The natural lighting and the slow-paced editing offer a great deal of cinematic realism about a subject that is unfortunately very real. For those who don’t know: “Sovereign citizens are concerned with the legal framework of society. They believe all people are born free with rights — but that these natural rights are being constrained by corporations (and they see governments as artificial corporations). They believe citizens are in an oppressive contract with the government.” (Dr Kaz Ross, Lecturer in Humanities (Asian Studies), University of Tasmania)
Nick Offerman (Jerry) mesmerises in front of the camera, depicting a person who is determined to defy or bypass the law and is willing to lose it all to prove himself right. A person who is also determined and willing to take his son, Joe, down with him. Jacob Tremblay portrays that kid who is lost and whose true kindness, intelligence and abilities are doomed to be overshadowed by the extremism his father imposes on him. While at it, remember that one day, Tremblay will blow us out of the park with a performance that will propel him to the skies (to me, he’s already done it). Sovereign‘s action is slow, but the plot is suspenseful and dramatic. Dennis Quaid is a veteran with fifty years of experience under his belt, and his character (John) is what adds an extra layer of drama to a life that is already burdened with tragedy.
While I’m sure most of us have found ourselves in frustrating situations with the government, the bank, the law, and bureaucracy, extremism will never provide any solutions. Never has, never will. Unfortunately, though, this is what led to the creation of individuals like Jerry Kane and the particular group of like-minded individuals. One of these, some of these, or even all of those above have formed a system that keeps feeding extremism in various shapes and forms, and indoctrination, and creates a state of extremism vs. extremism, leaving little to no place for reason, peace and life to thrive.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
They never speak. They never stop. But they’ve always reflected us. Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers aren’t just killers — they’re cultural icons. Manifestations of fear, pain, vengeance… and what we try to hide from ourselves. This day, I guess on Halloween, too, always ask yourselves: Why do we keep bringing them back?
Image References: IMDb
Three stories from three different eras, the Predators come to Earth and battle our most ferocious fighters.
Meticulously thought and executed! Dan Trachtenberg was the right person to take over the franchise. Starting with Prey (2022), now Predators: Killer of Killers and soon Predator: Badlands, we have exactly what we wanted: diversity, continuity, and connection. Killer of Killers is an anthology with numerous easter eggs to satisfy the most demanding fans. There is a total lack of realism, but the animation genre was never intended to be about that. It offers spectacle, and despite its numerous gimmicks and plot holes, it is enjoyable and prepares the ground for Badlands, which aims to knock our socks off.
Trachtenberg, co-director Joshua Wassung, and the visual effects teams did a fantastic job hyping us up a few months before Badlands, connecting the past with the present and getting us ready for the potential merger of two cinematic worlds, where two alien species will face off against each other – if you know what I mean.
Thanks for reading!
Please, don’t forget to share. 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!
Stay safe!
