As her mental state deteriorates, a single mother loses custody of her child, escalating further her suffering and self-destruction.
One of the most realistic cinematic depictions of mental illness! Dramatic as much as it is horrific, Kotoko cuts your breath short and breaks your heart. Cocco’s frenetic acting (and original story), and Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s writing, editing, and directing bring to life a fairly unknown, and, consequently, underrated drama/horror that physically pins you down and mentally disturbs you. One of the rare occasions where a film is directed and edited by the same person and actually works. More often than not, the director fails to “kill their darlings” while editing, but Tsukamoto not only does that, but he also delivers a final cut where all the “wants” and “needs” are clearly distinguished and the character development, or its excruciating effort to develop, defined.
Kotoko is relentless and brutal! It delves into Kotoko’s derailing mental state and deprives her of her life, taking away her willingness to exist. Tsukamoto’s narrative restricts you to the way Kotoko perceives the world and her distorted and manipulated reality infinitely increases the unpredictability, giving you zero clues as to what may happen in the end. Not knowing what the worst will be, the bad becomes worse and worse, and worse… not knowing when it’ll get there.
Heavy on the soul, but highly recommended to whoever seeks to explore a true cinematic representation of mental illness.
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P.S. Take the hint of the adverse media and how that may affect, or even define people’s lives. There is a message there that is not to be discounted.
In the near future, when the oceans have drowned most of the land, four people do everything they can to protect a weapon that can wipe out what is left.
Low budget, high quality! Writer Malachi Smyth and director Tanel Toom build up suspense from the opening scene to the end credits. The characters are defined, and so is the problem; us! The human race. We’ve managed to drown the planet, and even then, we fight for what’s left of it. Cpl. Cassidy couldn’t have said it better, half an hour into the film. Kate Bosworth, Lucien Laviscount, Martin McCann, and Thomas Kretschmann form a great team whose members both clash as well as stand united against their own worst fears.
The more the narrative develops, the more hope is lost. The more hope is lost, the more unpredictable the escalation and climax get. Last Sentinel is a thrilling one-location, low-budget sci-fi with a couple of serious environmental and humanistic messages for you to contemplate. There is something else, though… the enemy! Who is the enemy? More importantly, what is an enemy? Enjoy watching!
Rest in peace Tina Turner and Ray Stevenson… Safe journey!
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P.S. Hope was the last thing left in Pandora’s box…
A family of fur trappers is threatened by a wolf, but the real threat is nothing they have ever encountered before.
Suspenseful, compelling, and nothing like you expect! Absolutely brilliant! One of the most realistic thrillers you’ve seen in ages. Separate stories come together naturally, blending financial and societal issues that you and I face, with the thrills and horrors of the remote wilderness, and all that to a build-up that neither you nor I have and hopefully will never have to face. Devon Sawa (Joseph) and Summer H. Howell (Renée) have wonderful chemistry as father and daughter, but it is Camille Sullivan (Anne) who will blow you out of the water. Her character is meticulously written, and Sullivan has thoroughly developed it.
There is no need to go into technical details: directing, writing, acting, editing, and photography are 10/10. IFC Midnight, leader of independent film productions, delivers once more! The man behind it, Shawn Linden, builds up the suspense in a way that glues you to your seats but wait, oh boy, wait for the way he climaxes it. Wait to see what’s coming in the end as it is highly unlikely that you have ever seen anything like it…
A must-see for every horror fan out there!
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The town hall of a severely depressed town hires a middleman to deliver news to its citizens, mostly bad.
An adaptation done very right! Adaptations have never been easy. Let alone when two opposite genres are combined. The Middle Man is one of them films that there is no need to scrutinise the way it was made, except for its character and story development. The characters’ passivity matches the story’s steady pace and that can be seen throughout all three acts where there is this tendency for the addresser to state something obvious and the addressee to cynically respond to the obviousness.
Following up on that, The Middle Man expresses thoughts that all of us have had at some point in our lives but never expressed them the way we wanted in fear of how they would have been perceived. There are awkward statements and reactions to those statements that other films would deem nonsensical or indifferent, but not this one. Writer/director Bent Hamer truly comprehends Lars Saabye Christensen’s novel, Sluk 2012, and uses this awkwardness and flatness of human emotion to develop both the characters and the story. It is not often that you watch a film like this. What, I personally, find intriguing in a narrative like this is the level of unpredictability. You can never know where it is going to lead you; where and how the hero’s journey is going to end. To the point that you will philosophise the purpose of the actual nature of the journey. A proper analysis would connect society, the economy (or lack thereof), and the human psyche. In other words, the collapse of the economy, its consequences to society, and, consequently, its effect on the human soul. Ask yourselves this: How can a “dead” town have “alive” citizens? But I’ll leave this up to you.
Excellent job from the cast: Pål Sverre Hagen, Tuva Novotny, Paul Gross, Trond Fausa, and Rossif Sutherland share Hamer’s vision and brilliantly offer you this flatness and awkwardness the narrative requires. Somehow, the narrative might affect you also due to the actual premise. While allegedly taking place in America, the film was shot mostly in Germany and Canada, and Hamer and Hagen are from Norway, and the rest of the cast is from Norway and Canada. The Middle Man is a collaboration amongst these countries, and its effect will last on you way past the end credits. Interestingly, something similar I encountered in the previous film I reviewed, Dual (2022): https://kaygazpro.com/2023/04/25/dual-2022-comedy-drama-sci-fi/
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P.S. Gary! This review is definitely for you, mate!
After receiving a terminal diagnosis, a woman decides to clone herself, but when she realises she is not actually dying, she challenges her clone to fight to the death.
Solid script and solid execution! Great opening sequence that gives you a glimpse of a… sort of dystopia. Cutting to Sarah, the magnificent Karen Gillan, the comedic element surprises on a number of levels. At times, it is cut and dry, and other times, it balances between intentional and unintentional. What enhances it is the lack of emotional response, mostly by Sarah, but also by everyone else. Everyone takes this dystopic legality and morality as a matter of course, and while this is not unusual for futuristic scenarios, Dual (which if you haven’t noticed already sounds like “duel”), visually takes place in the present day.
There are a lot more pros than cons in Dual. Gillan is definitely the biggest pro. She’s a great actress, and I, for one, hope to see her in more and more projects over the years, other than the MCU. Aaron Paul is great no matter what he’s in. The writing and directing of Riley Stearns is another great pro for all the abovementioned reasons. While watching it, ask yourselves, where does it take place?* When does it take place? Why do so many people have so many different accents?
While there is darkness hovering throughout all three acts, the ending carries it more heavily. There is a conspiracy behind what happened in the forest, and while it is revealed afterwards, this unsettling feeling of false interconnectedness stenches way past the end credits. Enough said! Enjoy it!
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Seven years after “Upstate Story”, Ellis looks back at his life, wondering where it’s going.
Writer/director Shaun Rose becomes Ellis Martin once more and teaches nihilism – you might look at his philosophy in a different light towards the end, though. Rose’s strongest suit is the honest monologues. He offers on screen what you and I have thought, one way or another, at some stage of our lives, but maybe never really expressed out loud. His cynicism gives birth to a faithful sequel, where Ellis still looks for some purpose in life without really putting any effort into finding it – again, stay till the very end. Narrating your own life, and explicating your mundane everyday routine, speaks volumes about who you are and what your mental state is. The balance between drama and comedy is delicate but Rose manages to find it throughout. And all these are the interesting bits, the highly relatable ones.
When he makes it to Toga, there are moments where it feels like a tour of the place he grew up and even though it kind of makes sense to provide most of that information there, a lot could have been sped up or cut out in post to avoid narrative deceleration. Having said that, the way the storyteller decides to tell the story is the way we’ll get to experience it. Some will like it some will not. Inevitably.
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A group of teenage guerillas who belong to a shadowy organisation, hold a female doctor hostage, not knowing that heavy military forces are coming to her rescue.
Allegorical, brutal, and nerve-racking! In my previous review, Plane (2022): https://kaygazpro.com/2023/03/02/plane-2022-action-adventure-thriller/, I made a specific reference to the lack of realism in both the traditional military operation and guerilla warfare – despite the film’s other qualities. If you want to see what it could potentially look like, watch Monos! Writer Alexis Dos Santos and writer/director Alejandro Landes heavily invest in the realism of a group of youths and their isolation (hence the title that means “alone”, in Greek), making you wonder if you are actually watching a docudrama. Mica Levi’s soundtrack enhances smoothly the already powerful visuals and the editing team’s cuts flow the story naturally, connecting time and space in a way that it feels like you are actually there, observing like an omniscient narrator. Having said that, pay attention to the montage in the end and the way it constructs the group’s advancement. Except for Mosises Aria, the rest of the kids are not actors and this adds to the aforementioned realism, but I found it shocking that Julianne Nicholson (Doctora), who’s also an associate producer, performed her own stunts. All of them! Acting masterclass!
While it’s loosely based on William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” (1963), it isn’t. “Lord of the Flies”, and Monos are addressed to different audiences. I’ll do a separate review of the former and explain certain differences, in the near future. For now, watch this masterpiece and experience a totally different perspective of life as seen through the eyes of people who have experienced the world in a way we wish we never have to.
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P.S. If past the end credits, you are still wondering about Rambo’s gender, you are meant to.
A single mother and successful executive starts gradually losing her mind when a mysterious man from her past appears out of the blue.
Intense and captivating! I walked right into it, knowing nothing about it. Rebecca Hall’s acting and her character, Margaret, compete to get your attention. Is Margaret that compelling or is Hall so freaking good? And while you’re wondering that, the appearance of the mysterious man, the one and only Tim Roth, escalates the suspense to the extreme. Who is he? What has he done to her? What is he doing to her? What is he going to do to her?
But when you make it to Margaret’s disturbing monologue, take a break for a second – actually 8 minutes, stop asking questions, and pay attention. A great director knows when to cut or not. In dialogue, they know when to cut from the addresser to the addressee. They know their actors’/actresses’ abilities and trust them – and that extends to Grace Kaufman (Abbie). Writer/director Andrew Semans goes above and beyond and creates a psychological thriller that delves into trauma, manipulation, and their implications and throws you off your comfort zone. He lets Hall, Roth, and Kaufman unfold their talent and paces his film eerily and methodically.
It’s interesting, we may think we know someone and admire their confidence and want to be like them but little do we know. More interestingly, we may think we know ourselves, but, one day, we might realise that we have forgotten how our actual face looks, buried deep underneath the innumerable facades we’ve put on over the years…
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When a young woman becomes a mother, her world starts falling apart and the line between what’s real and what isn’t keeps constantly blurring.
Intense, dark, and surrealistic! There is this slight paranoia in the first act. That something has happened, something is happening or something is about to happen – altogether. While pondering that, it starts feeling like something has happened to Jo (Noémie Merlant), or something is happening to her, or something will happen, and she is going to cause it – to herself or others. Writer/director Bess Wohl and editor Jin Lee deliberately confuse the audience with the way the story unfolds, the jump cuts, and the montage sequences, making them unsure if it’s Jo, the baby, everyone around them, or a concoction of everything and everyone. In the second act, that slight paranoia peaks, and only towards the end it starts steadily and gradually clearing up, revealing what is happening and what Jo thinks is happening. I’ll leave that for you to figure out, though.
Directorial debut for Bohl and the way she handles her brilliant actors, Noémie Merlant, Kit Harington, Jayne Atkinson, and Meredith Hagner, and her editing – when to cut, what kind of montage to use, etc – is remarkable. More importantly, though, she manages to start, develop, and finish a narrative that delves into a fear only women in that position can understand. For whoever is or whoever has to live with a person in that position is just a descent into madness. I, not being in that position, found it a tad excessive or surrealistic, but maybe that was the goal. Having worked for the NHS, though, and seen some post-natal mental illnesses, I can not say with certainty if it actually is. And just by wondering and asking relevant people about it after the post-credits have scrolled down and days after watching it, it shows how much it is worth watching.
All I can say is that it’ll be worth your while. Actually, it’ll keep you on the edge of your seat while making you experience every family’s happiest moment through the lens of a lurking darkness that can consume everyone. Especially women.
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The transition from the silent to the sound era slowly brings the frenetic and debaucherous Hollywood lifestyle to an end, affecting everyone in the industry in ways they had never fathomed before.
A wild and extravagant cinematic wonder! Damien Chazelle is a freaking genius. He knows what to write, how to write it, what to shoot, and how to shoot it. His sense of rhythm, editing, depth of field, comedy/drama/music/musical, even horror, and his actors’ abilities turn everything he touches into gold. Every sequence carries its own priceless cinematic values that are given to you through sheer acting, photography, and editing. Babylon is a modern masterpiece and one of the most beautiful and difficult films seen in recent years. A love and hate letter to what has been and could never be repeated after it was done.
Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jean Smart, Diego Calva, Jovan Adeppo, Lukas Haas, Olivia Hamilton, Li Jun Li, Eric Roberts, Samara Weaving, Tobey Maguire (also, producer), Olivia Wilde, Phoebe Tonkin, and the rest of the cast give their 100%, holding nothing back! Similar praise deserves the rest of the crew that seems to have worked to perfection like a Swiss watch to make this top-tier level film happen. No matter what I or anyone else says, will not add to its superb quality. Babylon is the absolute must-watch and must be in everyone’s collection! Like every other Chazelle film, it knows no boundaries when it comes to evoking all the intended emotions.
A couple of years ago, at a conference, I extensively elaborated on Chazelle and the editing behind his films (always with editor Tom Cross); the average length shot, when he cuts and when he lets the shots “breathe”, and how his editing creates meaning by showing not telling, and most certainly not giving away. Everything I have said about Whiplash (2014) and La La Land (2016) firmly applies here, too. How much did the Academy notice Babylon? There was a time that I would really care about who they nominated and awarded, but I grew up and grew out of it. The Academy is meant to reward the filmmakers and the filmmaking techniques, but lobbies get in the way, rewarding politics while constantly swapping with one another the facades of hypocrisy. Furthermore, the fact that Babylon didn’t manage to find an audience means nothing. Be it the too many subgenres, the marketing (or lack thereof), its duration, or the time it came out, it doesn’t matter. All it matters is that you watch it.
If Hollywood’s lifestyle back then was worse than it is today, it is up for debate. It is a phantasmagorical business that elevates talents as easily as it chews them up and spits them out.
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P.S. Most characters are based on actual actors/actresses and filmmakers of the time.
P.S. The similarities in the narrative between Babylon and La La Land are meant to be striking. Look into it if you are interested while keeping “nostalgia” in mind.
A young girl helps her parents clean her mother’s childhood house when she meets another young girl in the forest that looks exactly like her.
Original script, unique execution! There is no reason to fully elaborate here, so I’ll keep it short and sweet. Writer/director Céline Sciamma explores the world in a way that a child only could and, gently and with imagination aplenty, she distinguishes it from the adults’ world. The beauty of her filmmaking lies in its simplicity and honest intentions. Forget the cinema of impressions, the “in-your-face” close-ups, the rapid editing, and the trying-to-find-plot-holes mentality. Sciamma and the real-life twins Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz, in just an hour and ten minutes, will manage to get your undivided attention, by inviting you to a world that offers a second chance, understanding, and explication that defies analysis. Surely, the ending will have you thinking. The more the end credits scroll down, the more unreasonable but heartfelt answers will come to your mind.
Very simple but extremely well-thought premise that is brilliantly elaborated and executed. Remember, the restrictive narrative presents the world through an 8-year-old girl’s eyes who only aims to understand the world around her. After all, aren’t we all?
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A writer spends a few days with her mother at a secluded Victorian hotel, but the past evokes emotions she never expected.
Atmospheric, eerie at times, truly Hitchcockian, but awfully slow. It is a very intriguing story, but a rather non-challenging execution. For starters, while it is a noble idea to have Tilda Swinton playing both daughter and mother, the fact that producer/writer/director Joanna Hogg couldn’t place them in the same shot (not till the very end, anyway) made the dialogue editing look like a ping pong match. Overall though, the film’s great shots compensate for the unimaginably slow pace and rhythm and while the purpose is justified, you might find it difficult to stay with it until the end. There is a steady pace throughout all three acts, something that provides a sense of realism, and while there is a denouement, yes, the path Hogg paves towards that denouement will seriously challenge your patience and ability to focus. Ultimately, it is a heavily depressing concept that does not aim to cheer you up. And this is what you sign up for; an hour and a half of Kafkaesque gloom. Personally, I very much enjoyed it by being sucked into the story and the dark drama it carries, but I find it difficult to recommend it.
This is yet another A24 film that I will praise, as well as their collaboration with BBC, and producer Martin Scorsese. There is an audience for such films, and they aim right at it. The key to just accepting it for what it is is to grasp the feeling of loneliness, the burden of guilt, and the impact of loss.
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An obese girl who gets constantly bullied witnesses a crime that will complicate her life even further.
Challenging, thought-provoking, and unique! Bullies… Who likes bullies?! Would you like yourself if you were one? Would you even know if you were one? Then, who likes an outsider? How would you deal with it if you were one? Piggy succeeds where the vast majority of Hollywood horrors fail. It dares to challenge society and youth in a way that very few filmmakers have. Writer/director Carlota Pereda disregards how the masses might feel and gives it to you raw, just the way you don’t like it. Her horror/drama reflects the ugliness of modern times through a mirror that reveals an extremely unpleasant image of ourselves.
Piggy tackles bullying but also battles the actions towards it or lack thereof. On one hand, the act of bullying or doing nothing to prevent it from happening is abhorrent, and, on the other hand, taking drastic action raises significant questions as to what the limit is. Piggy shifts the moral compass time and time again, placing the audience in a very uncomfortable position. You will not stop thinking about how “bad” the “right” way feels and how “good” the “wrong” way does. Ultimately, what is moral and legal, and the disorientating line between them will be occupying your thoughts while the story painfully advances. What we would like to happen, how it should happen, and what it actually happens will really cloud your judgment. And all that to a wild, climactic, and controversial ending.
While all cast and crew deserve praise for this beautifully ugly film, Laura Galán deserves the biggest round of applause for portraying such a character with such charisma. Congratulations to Magnolia Pictures/Magnet Releasing, and everyone else who co-funded this film.
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A young girl finds and keeps a dead bird’s egg, but when it hatches, a horror beyond her imagination starts growing.
You don’t know what you sign up for! Meet the family… mother: detestable, father: poor sod, brother: mama’s boy and spoiled brat, Tinja: victim of the “perfect family” and the true anti-heroine of the story (or is it, villain?). Once that’s established, the awkwardly looking and sounding gigantic bird spices things up. Admittedly, it doesn’t seem much, and its role, at first, is quite questionable and awkward, but the way the narrative escalates the awkwardness is replaced by an unexpected horror that leads the story in an unpredictable direction. How so?
Interestingly, the mother, you know, the one you instantly hated, you will abhor later on. Her boyfriend? You’ll empathise with him, even knowing what’s happening. The father and son are as bad, and Tinja becomes one of the most interesting child characters you’ve seen in recent years. The last time I got that impressed was watching The Innocents (2021): https://kaygazpro.com/2022/03/23/the-innocents-2021-drama-horror-mystery/.
Hint and tiny spoiler… I believe there is a moral behind it, and that has to do with the externalisation of inner human monstrosity, and its connection to the alter ego. The obviousness of the father/son relationship might be displayed on purpose by co-writer/director Hanna Bergholm only to throw you off and hide the subliminal similarities of the mother/daughter one. I’m sure you can find more online about it, but my recommendation is to watch it, contemplate it, and only then do a “compare and contrast” with what you thought of it. IFC Midnight rarely disappoints and always offers a fresh perspective to the genre.
Excellent performances by Siiri Solalinna (Tinja) and Sophia Heikkilä (mother)! Also, excellent photography and editing!
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A weekend of quality time turns into a living nightmare for two friends in a remote Scottish village.
Low budget, high quality, excellent deliverance! Absolutely captivating! Two friends go hunting in the countryside at a time when everything works out well for them. What can go wrong, right? Calibre is the epitome of how one’s life can descend into darkness right before it makes it to hell. A hell, no religion has prepared you for.
I won’t tell you much, but I’ll tell you this: it’s not an easy watch. It offers a soul-wrenching realism that will unavoidably place you in Vaughn and Marcus’ shoes, but especially Vaughn’s. It will make you question what you would have done if you were them and will challenge your emotions and principles. On the other hand, you will be placed in Logan’s shoes too. Keep this in mind, a remote local community’s sense of justice might be different to anyone who has not been born or raised in a place feeling forgotten and abandoned by the rest of the world. Watch it and see what happens. Feel the suspense escalating by the minute as well as the psychological torment.
Netflix couldn’t get this more right! Writer/director Matt Palmer puts together a flawless drama/thriller, offering a suspense masterclass. Jack Lowden, Martin McCann, Tony Curran, and the rest of the cast deliver exceptional performances, amplifying the already heightened suspense and drama. My advice is to read nothing about it! Turn the lights off, put Netflix on, choose it, and experience the horror of consequences.
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P.S. That was the second time I watched it and I felt the tension even more.
Wanting to bring her son to America, a Senegalese woman becomes a nanny for a wealthy family while her mind plays horrific tricks on her.
Well-acted, but awfully problematic. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was not sitting well with Nanny. So, keep in mind that it is predominantly a drama and not a horror. Therefore, you may agree that the dramatic plot should be supported by a horrific subplot. Well, it does that much, so the question is, does it in an appealing manner? In a way that hooks you?
Aisha is an overly relatable character, especially for those who know about migration, and Anna Diop absolutely nails her part, adding to the drama that slowly and painfully unfolds. Hence, her story starts from sad only to end up… well, you’ll see. But the snippets of horror don’t add up as they find it difficult to place themselves in the story. The constant use of eerie music when they try to do so is their only way of infiltrating, and writer/director Nikyatu Jusu feels the need to have an “in-your-face” approach. That becomes a direct contradiction because what is happening to Aisha lurks under the surface and the filmmaking techniques that are meant to subliminally deliver her uneasiness couldn’t make it more obvious as if you otherwise wouldn’t get it. You would. And you will probably figure out from the very beginning what the drama is about. In psychological dramas, thrillers, and horrors the action is divided between on and off-screen, carefully chosen by the director what is happening where. Jusu places everything on-screen, projecting confusion rather than mystery, and the plot and subplot become indistinguishable.
Jusu’s strong suit is the use of Diop’s incredible acting skills, and, consequently, she solely becomes the reason to watch it. The film itself, unfortunately, till the very end, fails to decide what it wants to make you feel. Needless to say that the ending is a narratological mess that claims a “fatality” victory over the already visually wounded audience. Shame, really…
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A man’s obsession to find out why his best friend suddenly stopped talking to him spirals gradually out of control.
Funny, sad, nostalgic, and kinda heart-wrenching. Perfectly balanced, the drama goes hand in hand with the (dark) comedy in a small gossiping Irish society during yet another nasty civil war. The themes of hopelessness and helplessness prevail, characterising the two main heroes, Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), leaving still some room though for the ostensibly inescapable loneliness that tortures Siobhán (Kerry Condon). The underdog of the entourage though, the one that gets life’s shortest straw, is no other than Dominic (Barry Keoghan). What, I believe, in this instance, writer/director’s Martin McDonagh brilliance is, is that all the characters above are experienced through the eyes of the villagers and each others’ (comedy), but also through their own eyes when they are alone and no one is watching (drama) and the striking difference and inevitable clash between the two can be experienced by the audience.
You may have heard of character-driven vs story-driven films; films that are driven by the actions of the characters vs films that are driven by events that set the cogs in motion, respectively. Upon explaining that difference to numerous people who watched it, I asked and everyone told me that The Banshees of Inisherin is a character-driven story because the heroes’ actions escalate the situation and move the story forward. While I agree with that, I will note that the story taking place, profusely, in April 1923, towards the end of that civil war, is not a coincidence. Therefore, I argue that it is a story-driven narrative and it is the war (and, maybe, the wars before it) that has mentally affected everyone the way it has. Not long after the film starts, Pádraic walks along the shore and turns around abruptly when he hears the bombings coming from the mainland. McDonagh stays on him, looking in that direction until he says: “Good luck to ye. Whatever it is you’re fightin’ about…” In its simplicity, this couldn’t be more heartbreaking. He doesn’t know who to say good luck to and he doesn’t know why either. He only knows how he feels about seeing his fellow countrymen kill one another. Respectively, everyone copes with that atrocity in their own secret or more obvious way. And Pádraic, the once optimistic and cheerful chap, gradually… well, you’ll see…
More often than not, I examine the way the filmmaking techniques interact with the film’s narrative, but then there are times that I just let it go. This will be one of them. I’ll tell you this, though: Expect a brilliant soundtrack, astonishing photography, tear-jerking acting, and a thought-provoking journey that will make you laugh as much as it will bring tears to your eyes.
As per McDonagh, “there was no other way for the story to end”. I’m sure there are people who agree as much as there are people who couldn’t agree less. The fact that he makes all of us contemplate it, agree, disagree, or even create our own endings in our heads shows how powerful his story is. An absolute must-watch!
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
Stay safe!
P.S. It already has and will keep rightfully claiming every award under the sun.
A group of unorthodox people does everything in their power to stop an ancient creature from making it to Oslo.
Hollywood-style action/adventure that excites as much as it divides. The solid first act is the exciting part. Firstly, the child’s perspective plants the seed of faith, then the rapid editing builds up suspensefully the faith, and then the faith turns into a nightmare. Everyone’s disbelief, and the destruction the troll leaves in its path, but not its actual appearance, increase the suspense and maintain your attention until it actually appears and until the military operation against it begins. Somewhere there, the subplot surfaces, the troll becomes the reason the damaged father/daughter relationship gets a second chance, you get sucked into it, and then you remember that, oh yeah, there is a troll strolling somewhere.
The Norwegian military operation is blatantly stupid and doomed to fail as any Hollywood military operation is and everyone knows it beforehand. At least, it’s well-shot and edited so it will keep you glued. Unfortunately, but predictably, the same military bottomless buffoonery is infinitely amplified in the end, and one can only hope that the alternative will work. Every time I see these kinds of military operations, I get the feeling that there is an underlying message, something along the lines of ‘Hey! If that was not a mythical creature/alien/Jaeger/god/whatever, we would have kicked his a$$’ – a hint towards whatever country’s real-life potential enemies.
Anyway, without elaborating further, Roar Uthaug’s Troll is enjoyable. If you can overlook the Hollywood-style filming, and the rudimentary story and character development, the visuals are great, the audio is superb, the acting is conviencing, and the photography is effective. Above all, though, it is beautifully edited. Christoffer Heie and Jens Peder Hertzberg’s editing is what makes it so good despite the aforementioned flaws.
Enjoy it without over-thinking about it and you’ll be all right.
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A family that constantly disagrees on every aspect of life has to escape a major catastrophe, something that will deepen their existential views even more.
Between Film studies that specialise in car crashes and Hitler studies that specialise in… well… Hitler, there is this family that doesn’t stop talking. Men, women, and children alike sound and act as if they came out of Shakespeare’s play or human testing for a new drug. No one speaks or behaves… naturally. Think of it as three unrelated or totally disjoined parts (at best) of the same theatrical that relies heavily on rhythmic montage sequences to match the film’s frenetic and unstoppable verbal diarrhea.
Without getting into too much detail, the comedic part is not comedic enough – maybe, sporadically humorous or caustic. You won’t find yourselves laughingover anything, really. The part that is meant to be dramatic is not really dramatic because of the head-scratching roots that cause the drama. Finally, the horror part comes late(r) to the party, but, even then, it doesn’t stay long, really. Everyone over-philosophising everything through never-ending verbosity leaves no room for processing all this information, and, consequently, developing the intended emotions. Other than that, it doesn’t really know what kind of film it wants to be and its focus is all over the place. Take, for example, the camp Daffodil exodus. Similar sequences of evacuation have been in the past a living nightmare for everyone experiencing catastrophic events, including the empathising audience. Now, compare that sequence to any of the escaping sequences of the War of the Worlds (2005). Any. Escaping. Sequence. The comparison’s outcome leads to parody, and so do these disconnected points of view on literally everything and nothing. Is this what writer/director Noah Baumbach aimed to do? A parody of the American family? A parody of American society? Is that what that pointless musical, in the end, is (not spoiling it, don’t worry)?
Think about it, what happens after the cloud is gone till the end of the film? Nothing. Nothing for absolutely no reason. While I haven’t read Don DeLillo’s novel, solely focusing on the film, leaving the survival mode of the second part behind, all you get in the third part is lyrical nothingness. Who was meant to be the target audience, in other words, who was meant to like it? Horror fans? Nope! People, who need a good laugh? Nope! Fans of existentialism (is there such an audience)? If I were to characterise it in one sentence, I would say that it is an exceptionally well-shot and well-acted bewilderment. Congrats to Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, and the rest of the cast who act so great for whatever reason.
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Two diametrically opposite upper-class teenagers try to devise an intricate and sketchy plan.
Two amazing actresses in a quirky and unpredictable thriller. The slow-burn and verbose Chapter One patiently sets up the scenery and provides insight into who Amanda and Lily are, what they hide inside them, and what they can potentially unleash. This is where Chapter Two comes in and gives you a glimpse of that and provides the visual justification the crime needs to be committed – a little bit more fast-paced, admittedly, but not significantly. And you also get to know Tim, the accomplice. Chapter Three, the actual crime (?), is what carries the most suspense. Or is it? Chapter Four… actually, I am not telling you about Chapter Four.
Cory Finley has written and directed a deliberately “emotionless” or emotionally confusing (at best) film. From a directing point of view, the protracted shots are a visual feast. They thoroughly frame the action, leading the audience to what they think might happen or purposefully misleading them to what actually does. But what really holds the attention is Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy. They are remarkable, and they have fruitful careers in and outside of Hollywood. Their diversity is simply astonishing. Unfortunately, though, not long after the film’s wrap, Anton Yelchin tragically passed at the age of 27. The film is dedicated to his memory, and we surely and sorely miss him.
I recommend it to anyone who has patience with art. To anyone who knows how to follow the narrative and accept it for what it is and not what they would like it to be and to anyone who appreciates great acting. If you are going to like it or not, cannot be predicted. Regardless, I say have a go at it. I believe it’ll be worth your while.
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A clinically-depressed teenager checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward and… a kind of funny story unfolds.
Based on Ned Vizzini’s homonymous novel and his actual brief hospitalisation in 2004, It’s Kind of a Funny Story is actually kinda funny the way it is told. While nothing is or should be funny, mind you that what you see is Vizzini’s reality and the way he perceived it at the time. Also, remember that the funniest comedies derive from the deepest dramas. And that’s what writers/directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck brilliantly do, they beautifully bring out both. They feel Vizzini’s inner struggle, they endorse it, they respect it, and they bring out the didactic and sensitive side of it. Keir Gilchrist (Craig), Zach Galifianakis (Bobby), and Emma Roberts (Noelle) enter Vizzini’s world, and under the supervision of Boden and Fleck, bring tears as much as they form smiles. Lauren Graham, Jim Gaffigan, Zoë Kravitz, and Thomas Mann (who a few years later aced it in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, link below) do a great job in showing the lack of understanding the former people need to cope with the world. As a feel-good film, based on an extreme yet realistic situation, when asked towards the end how Craig feels about his release, he responds with what the takeaway of the film is; that he “can handle it”.
Sorrowfully though, eventually, Vizzini couldn’t. And, sadly, three years after the film’s release, he actually did what for so long had been going through his mind. But his admirable effort, strength, and will are what we need to keep in our minds.
This is the side of Hollywood that not only doesn’t insult human intelligence but actually gives plenty of food for thought and evokes all the intended emotions – which is what cinema is meant to do. Please, feel free to explore more of those films and create a list that made you laugh and cry, and, why not, move on to other genres as well that, potentially, thrill you, horrify you, etc. Regardless, I will always do my best to keep you posted on the latest releases as well as older ones that you potentially missed or forgot about over the years.
This is also my last review for this year. I concluded it with films that when I watched back then and rewatched now have had a positive (even cathartic) impact on me and I hope you feel the same. I wish you and your families a healthy, happy, and incredibly productive 2023. Be always well and stay safe!
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The joys and tribulations of a couple that sees love, relationship, and life in antithetical ways.
Funny, sad, awkward, introverted, and very non-chronological. Well, as the narrator explains, it may be partially a boy-meets-girl story, but I would argue that also partially, it is the old fear-of-opening-up story. The narrator also talks about “walls,” but narrators are liars (see Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, link below). Filmmaking is a manipulative art, so don’t blame them, narration is meant to be misleading. What you want to happen and what needs to happen might not match what will actually happen. Sounds convoluted? Well, we are! Individually, let alone collectively. There are no fingers to be pointed at though. We are who we are due to numerous personal, professional, academic, or even cosmic reasons. Do we want to change that? Do we need to change that? Then, how much of it and which part(s)? If yes, who for? Are they willing to do the same? It always has been and always will be convoluted.
Very well-edited, acted, and directed, focusing on the dark side of love, but also its silver lining. Writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and Director Marc Webb open up with a film that speaks their truth about human feelings and the things we say to one another, or, actually, don’t. The amazing Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt share that vision and fully express the significant differences between expectations vs. reality, “forcing” you to root for one or the other. The way the story is told though I don’t think anyone could root for Summer. I believe that what she does, in the end, is brutally cruel. But, as we ultimately get to find out, whether they actually meet one last time or not (you’ll get to decide), the truth is… even… more… cruel…
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
Stay safe!
P.S. Jenny, the girl mentioned in the beginning, was actually one of the screenwriter’s ex. Summer is based on her. So, the disclaimer is… personal.
P.P.S. I still can’t believe sometimes how fast Chloë Grace Moretz grew up and the long way she has come. Incredible actress!
A couple’s six-year relationship is experienced through parallel universes.
Justin Long and Emmy Rossum! And if that alone doesn’t sound appealing enough (which it should, by the way), know that Sam Esmail pens the script and sits in the director’s chair. Yes, the talent behind Mr. Robot (2015) who is also Rossum’s husband in real life. Oh, and Rossum and Long are also the producers, but enough of that.
Comet is not an easy film to make or make sense of. While science is referenced numerous times, art is brought up a lot, and philosophy takes over every parallel universe none of it really matters individually as much as it matters collectively. To the point that they matter so much, that become incomprehensible to the human brain, and, alas, love is what matters the most even if we can’t comprehend that either. Does love mean happiness, sadness, personal completion, or fulfillment? Something else? Does it mean some or all of that to us? Or to some of us? If not all, what does it mean to the rest? Furthermore, why is it that we can never fully express ourselves until it is too late? And when that “late” comes, all the should-haves, the could-haves, the would-haves immensely flood our reason and intricately overwhelm our emotions, feeling like no matter how many lives we had, like a Nietzschean theory, we would always doom it, experiencing all universes colliding, crashing on us.
Dell and Kimberly seem to be inundated with such questions and it seems like no matter how many parallel universes they go through, there will never be an “ideal”. The signs that they desperately try to make sense of, are personal interpretations of a world that will never come to be, longing for the little things from other worlds that they think if they combined together they would create the perfect scenario in which their relationship would be what they individually want it to be.
Having said all that, there is no reason to talk about match-cuts between universes, thorough mise-en-scène, amazing acting, and further elaborative filmmaking techniques. Just know that it is a beautiful film, based on a beautiful script with numerous funny and dramatic lines, performed beautifully by a beautiful on-screen couple.
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The year draws to a close and Camden College is inundated with parties attended by misfits, conformists, and everything in between.
Every writer’s torturing question is, how do I start the story? Writer/director Roger Avary, based on Brett Easton Ellis’ novel, starts from the end, the final party, to introduce the key players of his story. Meticulously made non-linear montages by the amazing Sharon Rutter reveal what will happen to Sean, Paul, Lauren, Lara, Victor, and Kelly only to rewind days before whatever happened and introduce them properly again by showing who they were before that last party.
Every sequence of the film is important to the narrative’s development and extremely well-constructed. There is something cinematically new and refreshing throughout every sequence. The back-and-forth ending, the visit to the drug dealer’s house, the junkie with the trombone, the edge of the world party, the Lauren/Sean encounter, the Sean/Paul encounter, the Sean/Dick and their moms encounter, the dressed to get screwed party, the suicide, Victor in Europe, and, finally, the very ending, are but a few of the sequences that will make you laugh as much as they will intrigue you. It might not mean much now reading their names, but watching them is a cinematic experience you will not forget.
Here are a few interesting details about the film.
Brett Easton Ellis is also the author of ‘American Psycho’ and Sean Bateman is the younger brother of psychopath Patrick Bateman – when you see Sean’s look, you’ll get how psychopathy runs in the family.
The late George Michael gave Avary his song “Faith” for free when he found out they couldn’t afford it.
“The End of the World” sequence was filmed on 11 September 2001. 🙁
In the Sean/Dick sequence, the singing and dancing were completely improvised.
Shocking that so many people still haven’t even heard of it! Avary characterised his film as “the assassination of teen comedies.” To their shame, numerous people walked out of the test screening shouting “fag film”. They missed what the narrative is about, why the characters are who they are, and didn’t stay till the very end to see what they came to be. There are amazing small details in the film that make it unique. There is a sign on Victor’s door for everyone to see, reading: “Victor, tests came back positive. Be careful.”, and still everyone wants to sleep with him, and he still hasn’t put it down. Notice how purposefully disjoined the film is in parts and ask yourself why. Pay attention to the snowflake that lands on Sean’s eye-corner and think of what it may mean. The Rules of Attraction neither provides any answers nor does it become too big for its own boots. It merely emphasises change and transformation by distinguishing reality from dream the only way life teaches us; the hard way. According to Avary, he believes that the critics responded negatively to his film because they saw it as “bad fiction”. He begs to differ he believes that “[…] It isn’t. It’s a reality that nobody talks about.”
Regardless of who really made it as an actor/actress/producer after that, James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Jessica Biel, Kip Pardue, Kate Bosworth, Ian Somerhalder, and Jay Baruchel give their 100% to the roles they were given and I take my hat off them! Clifton Collins Jr., Eric Stoltz, and, of course, the one and only Faye Dunaway were and are incredible to this very day.
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An awkward high school student who makes spoof films is forced to hang out with a girl that has just been diagnosed with cancer.
The side of Hollywood that can genuinely make you laugh as much as it can make you cry. This is what I call a flawless Hollywood film! You may think my view is a tad bold, but hear me out. The narration, the characters, the utterances, and the actions are shown in the surrealistic way they loop in Greg’s mind. And who has never thought: “Oh, if anyone could see how I make sense of this world in my mind…” Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is Greg’s perception of his world as seen through his eyes, but if I were to be more technical, through Jesse Andrews’ novel/script and Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s lense.
There is a lot to pay attention to, but let me summarise my top details for you just to get an idea and, maybe, appreciate somehow what I think deserves appreciation.
The hilarious and inventive spoof titles include, but are not limited to: ‘Anatomy of a Burger’ [Anatomy of a Murder (1959)], ‘Death in Tennis’ [Death in Venice (1971)], ‘Gross Encounters of the Turd Kind’ [Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)], ‘Raging Bullshit’ [Raging Bull (1980)], ‘A Sockwork Orange’ [A Clockwork Orange (1971)], ‘The 400 Bros’ (The 400 Blows (1959)].
The extremely well-written dialogues and monologues are funny, dramatic, and/or both. They will make you laugh, and cry separately and/or at the same time.
Thomas Mann (Greg), Olivia Cooke (Rachel), RJ Cyler (Earl), Connie Britton (Greg’s mom), Nick Offerman (Greg’s dad), Molly Shannon (Denise), and Jon Bernthal’s (Mr. McCarthy) performances are just beautiful!
From a filmmaking point of view, when Greg’s mom initially tries to convince her son that he must hang out with Rachel, her endless, non-stop verbal diarrhea is seen and heard uncut all the way from downstairs to upstairs till Greg slams shut the door. The continuation of her speech is accompanied by a continuous shot.
Respectively, when Rachel makes the discussion about her treatment and discusses it with Greg (01:01:33 – 01:06:53), the five-minute shot remains uncut, not distracting the audience’s attention from the heavy accusations exchanged.
But if we were to analyse the cuts and the montages throughout the film, I would draw the conclusion that they are there to visually explicate the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful. For example, the editing controls the rhythm of the film by creating sequences of various paces, such as the introduction of the high school – narrated by Greg, the animation cuts that anecdotally appear out of nowhere and purely visually make the point they want to make, and the mixture of such sequences that constantly and meticulously regulate the comedy/drama balance.
In an attempt to avoid making this review into analysis, I’ll stop here and let you watch it. The aforementioned are merely examples that corroborate my point, but there is so much more that you will fall in love with. I will make reference to this extended review in reviews of similar films that I will not say so much about. I am leaving such films for the end of the year as I have nothing negative to say, and have made an impact on my expectations of films, raising the bar quite high. Look out for similar reviews that I will upload in the following days. A film of the same level and category is none other than The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012): https://kaygazpro.com/2020/12/16/the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower-2012-drama-romance/. Again, what I see as Hollywood’s strongest suit.
It took me years to watch it again and it evoked the exact same feelings as it did back then. I laughed out loud and burst into tears altogether. I hope you experience it the same way.
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A lonely and eccentric young novelist starts writing a book about his dream girl only to wake up one morning and see her right in front of him.
Ruby Sparks misplaces your dreams and crawls under your skin. At first, you get a glimpse of reality. You see how it is, you get to know Calvin, the way he experiences the world, and the way the world experiences him. Then you get a glimpse of fantasy, an insight into what is happening inside Calvin’s head. What follows is beautiful montages of reality and fantasy, and the result is the marriage of the two that creates the predicament. The comedy as well as the suspense of that predicament work perfectly on different levels. Calvin and his brother Harry know that she is a product of the former’s imagination. Then, everyone else doesn’t, including Ruby. You, as the audience, know all that, but no one knows where the story is heading. No one knows how this love story is going to end. Will she find out? How will she find out? If she will, how will she react? What will that mean for them individually? What will it mean for them collectively?
Real-life couple Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan (also producers) have amazing chemistry, chemistry initially created by Zoe Kazan herself (script) and brought to life by directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris [Well-known for Little Miss Sunshine (2006)]. As for the story itself, there are numerous ways to interpret its meaning. My advice is, don’t try to make sense of the “how” just of “why”. The way I see it, our imagination is limitless. The world we create inside our heads can be anything we want to it be. All emotions and feelings can change into what we want them to be, and we can be the people we always wanted to be. A wise man once said that the writer’s job is the loneliest job in the world. Not only do they isolate themselves from the rest of the world to write, but they also become gods of worlds that don’t exist. I believe the problem arises the moment that “God” comes back from that isolation and realises the lack of control they have over reality.
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After saving a man from a horrible accident, a hopeless romantic woman falls in love with his brother.
Funny and romantic, and that’s all you need to know. You’ll probably know by now that I’m not into romantic films, but even I make exceptions from time to time for films that do not insult human intelligence and offer nothing but smiles and entertainment during this festive time. While You Were Sleeping is one of them and one that watched as a kid back then. In a time when the Internet was not even a known word, films were one of the ways I got to discover the world and foreign cultures. The American way, cinematically at least, was, is, and always will be appealing to the human eye and soul – especially in this genre. This merely means though that American cinema, in and outside Hollywood, cannot be brutal, gritty, and realistic. That is another story for another time though. I feel like digressing…
Sandra Bullock, after Speed (1994), became a romance queen and one of America’s sweethearts with a lot of roles like this (and later on a lot more than that). Daniel G. Sullivan and Fredric Lebrow wrote a tight script and director Jon Turteltaub made a comedy/romance with plenty of delay of resolution that will keep you till the very end waiting for the tables to turn. The film paces beautifully and leads to the outcome that brings that tear of joy to your eyes. It’s a beautiful film about the most beautiful feeling n the world; love. We couldn’t live without it even if we knew that one day someone would take it away from us. Failure to experience it hurts infinitely more than the pain it causes. And like with most Christmas films, its message is to constantly seek it, for it can be found in the most unlikely places. And in the most unlikely people, who, like us, are looking for it to become whole.
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
Stay safe!
P.S. As for Bill Pullman, to this very day, like Bullock, he hasn’t stopped surprising us with the projection of his internal bittersweet darkness. Amazing actors through and through!
Childhood friends, now in relationships or with their families, gather on Christmas day to spend their last moments together.
Funny-ish and somewhat emotional. Diverse and incompatible couples, inundated with animosity towards one another, meeting up on Christmas day while the world is coming to an end is a concept that can be developed in only a few ways. Think of it this way: The end of the world is the plot and everyone’s secrets and lies are the subplot. The former is dramatic while the latter is funny. So, by definition, Silent Night is a drama (genre) with comedy elements (sub-genre), so the balance between the two is integral. What should the “right” analogy be? Even better, is there such a thing as a “right” analogy? As the answer is very subjective, you will ultimately get to decide.
Writer/director Camille Griffin starts it off as a comedy that relies a lot on foul language, especially, when that language comes out of the children’s mouths. Slowly and steadily, when you’ll start realising that everyone knows they are going to die shortly, you’ll start interpreting everything differently. What they know about the end of the world and their situation and what you do as an audience enhances the suspense, making you wonder if there is actually a way out of it. Griffin has paid a lot of attention to the details surrounding that ending. The lack of drinkable water and soda cans, the government’s presence (or lack thereof), the communication of information/misinformation about the pending doom… Everything seems to be adding up bit by bit. So, is there a way out of it? Watch till the end to find out. Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Annabelle Wallis, Lily-rose Depp, Sope Dirisu, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Lucy Punch, and the kids deliver solid performances that add to the film’s believability.
With a sense of humour, Silent Night examines (superficially, I may add) the cause of the end of the world without particularly pointing any fingers. Maybe, the lack of understanding is the reason why it happens to begin with. It is not another country’s fault, it is not intricate biopolitics, and it is not the government. If we want a change, as Michael Jackson simply put it, we start with the man in the mirror. If not, one of the various cinematic case scenarios may come true one day.
This is most definitely not a gather-the-family-to-watch-a-Christmas movie, not conventionally anyway. I’m really glad I watched around this time of the year though as it got me thinking. Film, like any other art, is a vast and never-ending world that can repeat messages over and over again in innovative, intricate, and intriguing ways.
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One day before Christmas eve, two college students share a ride to their hometown, but they break down on a haunted and deserted forest road.
Haunting, mysterious, and well-written, directed, and acted! Before she became the Hollywood star she is today, Emily Blunt starred in this underrated Christmas horror, produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney (who worked together in the Oceans Eleven franchise). Wind Chill is not entertainment for the whole family. It’s dark, it’s eerie, and it’s spooky. Mystery “breathes” throughout all three acts and suspense intensifies through every minute that passes. Joe Gangemi and Steven Katz write, and Gregory Jacobs directs an intense thriller/horror that will constantly make you wonder where the story is heading. Who is Guy for real? Who are these men walking into the woods? What happened to this place? Where is this place, anyway? The hint to understanding how the supernatural works, in this instance, is understanding Guy’s reference to Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence. Get that and you’ll get, why the damned souls act the way they do.
I won’t spoil it for you one bit, though. You need to watch it! The reactions to what is happening are realistic, and Blunt showed even back then what an amazing actress she was and how even more amazing she was going to be. Whatever unbelievability the narrative carries with it, the tight script and the believable performances by both Blunt and Ashton Holmes make up for it.
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
Stay safe!
P.S. Question for you: Why was Girl able to hear everyone from the toilet’s gas station but no one could hear her?
A troubled child psychologist takes on a kid that is able to make contact with the dead.
Still haunting, still dark, and still gripping. This is more of a reminder than it is a review. By now, everyone knows what happened, how it happened, and when it happened. The reason I am resurfacing it though is to quickly remind you why it still cinematically matters, and, maybe, encourage you to watch it again this festive period.
I’ll leave out the couple of obvious plot holes that could have been paranormally interpreted in more than one way and avoid the use of reason in explaining how we get from one act to the next. But… I’ll focus on a couple of significant details that you either missed back then or possibly forgot over the years, such as the colour red. The award, the made-up house, the clothes, the staircase, the balloon, and, of course, the mysterious doorknob that does not open the door are only but a few examples of the colour’s usage that pushes the narrative forward but also betrays the film’s twist. This pattern is waiting for you to unravel it and grasp its importance in relation to Cole and his bliss or curse, depending on how one perceives that sixth sense of his.
The other mystery that makes the whole difference in the world in understanding the way the story unfolds is distinguishing who tells the story. In other words, whose story is it? What Cole knows that everyone else doesn’t is now known. What Dr. Crowe doesn’t know, but Cole does is also now known (back then none of it was). The answer lies in the camera angles. What the camera shows and the way it shows it gives away the person or entity’s point of view. These angles also establish where the audience stands at any given moment, something that wouldn’t have been possible if the editing wasn’t such. Ultimately, after the film’s twist is revealed, understanding whose story it is will put into perspective who helps whom, and will provide answers to most of the complex questions.
Bruce Willis captures the essence of his role, Toni Collette gets her first (and last) Oscar nomination, and Olivia Williams supports the story to her full extent (she’s an equally brilliant actress). But the ultimate surprise couldn’t be anyone else other than Haley Joel Osment (also, first and last Oscar nomination), the wonder kid that was later seen in films, such as Pay It Forward (2000) and A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001). And if you are wondering how a kid goes from a film like The Sixth Sense to A.I., know that in both films, producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall (husband and wife) are behind both productions. Even though that’s a story for another time, keep this in mind: Kennedy started as a production assistant in the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), helped develop films such as Gremlins (1984) and The Goonies (1985), and made the Star Wars universe what it is now. George Lucas might be the mastermind behind it, yes, but, without her wouldn’t have expanded to the lengths that it has now. Again, just to keep in mind how behind ostensibly irrelevant films the same people call the shot. Food for thought…
With The Sixth Sense, at the turn of the century, M. Night Shyamalan established himself as the new dominant ‘player’ of the thriller/horror genre, despite the numerous ups and downs that followed. I believe I speak for all of us when I say that we all look forward to the Knock at the Cabin (2023).
Filmmaking is an intriguing and intricate process and The Sixth Sense is an intriguing and intricate film that took years to decode the techniques behind its effect on the film industry. I hope you enjoy it once more.
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A college professor finds a puppy on his way back home and an unparallel bond is created.
Funny, emotional, and absolutely heart-breaking! Companionship… what would we be without it? Hachi is a wonderful true story about love. All kinds of love! The love towards our family, our friends, our work, our pets. Well, in this instance, the pet is family, and its love cannot be discounted to anything else. Based on the true Japanese story of Hachiko and his master Dr. Eisaburo Ueno, screenwriter Stephen P. Lindsey and director Lasse Hallström develop an emotional drama for the whole family that will make you smile as much as will bring tears to your eyes.
Richard Gere, Joan Allen, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Sarah Roemer, Jason Alexander, and Erick Avari set up the drama’s foundation, but as the title implies, Hachi (Chico, Layla, and Forrest) is the lead, and so, Hallström, the director of previous tearjerkers and bittersweets, such as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Chocolat (2000), and Dear John (2010) makes you experience the narrative’s unfolding through his eyes. From a filmmaking point of view, while the film lasts only an hour and a half, it takes no shortcuts. Kristina Boden’s editing paces all three acts beautifully allowing the audience to experience all the intended emotions and feelings; happiness, sadness, melancholy, anticipation, and hope.
Sometimes, I ramble about this and that, but it won’t be the case here as the film remains true to its goal. Ultimately, when you let it all sink in, Hachi is more than a film about mere friendship. It is about loyalty, camaraderie, and unconditional love. I hope you enjoy it this festive period, where, like any other period, humans and animals need one another.
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In the 1930s, a group of outcasts start investigating a murder they were framed for, which leads them to one of the biggest conspiracies in American history.
A-list cast in a bizarre, mysterious, and awkwardly funny whodunit. While from directing, cinematography, editing, (invisible) VFX, and acting point of view Amsterdam is next to immaculate, the script itself is, as said above, bizarre. Based on the political conspiracy against President Roosevelt and the coup that intended to overthrow him, the film consists of surrealistic characters, awkward humour, and a comedic way of seeing the war and social issues. Producer/writer/director David O. Russell selects a particular part of history and makes it too Hollywood by mythologising its existence and arguing and counter-arguing the pre-WWII politics in a manner that makes one wonder how they should feel about what they see.
What O. Russell also always manages to do is gather the best actors alive and get them into his films: Christian Bale, John David Washington, Margot Robbie, Alessandro Nivola, Andrea Riseborough, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Rock, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, Zoe Zaldana, Rami Malek, and Robert De Niro create excellent chemistry and do their absolute best in what seems to be a fairy-tale-like version of a historical event that could have changed the world as we know it today.
The film was a colossal box office failure! According to Deadline magazine, 20th Century Fox lost an estimated $97 million. Why? Amsterdam is unmarketable! I can’t see for the life of me what kind of audience it targets as I can’t see how they pitched it to the studio. But if I had to guess, O. Russell gathered the names and the studio just said ‘yes’. I think the film is just undecided in regard to what it wants to say. It addresses a serious, dark, and spine-chilling historical event in an awkwardly funny way that, despite the numerous marketable names, obviously didn’t work out.
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A chronicle of the unspeakable corruption of the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force.
A must-see! We Own This City is not just a miniseries, it’s a case study. The more you go into it the more it divides you and the more it makes you question what you believe in. Political beliefs are based mostly on our readings and/or on our experiences in life. Again, the more we read and the more we experience life, these political beliefs of ours get either more enhanced or debunked. Needless to say that certain people just stick to the beliefs they were taught, learn nothing from life, and, inevitably, mentally stagnate. But that is another story for another time…
Based on the book by Justin Fenton, creators George Pelecanos and David Simon, and director Reinaldo Marcus Green stick to the facts and stun with their accuracy. While dramatised, the events displayed are purely shocking. Not just for the American audience who is, unfortunately, used to experiencing those events on a regular basis, especially African-Americans, but for the rest of the world that only gets quick snippets of those tragic events, and, if not most times, sometimes the distorted version of them. What Pelecanos, Simon, and Green have achieved is introduce right off the bat, in a non-linear manner all the main players and their involvement in this case as well as the set-up of the scenery of that case. Admittedly, even though too complex for my standards, they immediately cut to the chase and still manage to intrigue with that complexity. The intriguing factor though passes the torch on to the devastating corruption that constantly and increasingly keeps blurring the lines of legality and morality. What’s more, the deeper you get into it, the more you start questioning the already doubtful system, the role it plays, who it represents, the reason(s) it’s there as well as the way it has been developed, the people who pull the strings, and the way they are pulling them.
On the other hand, the series will make you question the role of society, the individual within it, and its relationship to that system. As We Own This City colourfully portrays, society comprises totally innocent individuals, minor criminals, and major criminals. Respectfully, the system comprises hard-working and honest people, apathetic ones, and deeply corrupted. The burning and realistic question that instantly rises then is: How is this going to work? How will a corrupted system be able to serve a corrupted society? A less burning and unrealistic question (yet tremendously important) is the oldest one in the book: Does the corrupted system ruin society or does the corrupted society unavoidably generate a ruined system (chicken/egg)? We Own This City addresses those questions, deliberately messes with your head, and provides academic food for thought once the 6th episode’s credits start rolling (and way after that).
Jon Bernthal, Wunmi Mosaku, Jamie Hector, Josh Charles, Dagmara Dominczyk, Delaney Williams, Treat Williams, and the rest of the beautiful cast AMAZE with their shockingly realistic performances, conveying the intended messages to the audience. Bernthal is an extremely diverse actor, a powerhouse, that deserves a lot of praise, and so does Hector. I remember how much I hated Marlo in The Wire (2004 – 2008) and how much I loved and empathised with Sean in this one.
You will love it! You absolutely will! It’s a must-see if you like series like The Wire and The Shield (2002 – 2008).
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After being constantly rejected due to her past, a young woman is pulled into the criminal underworld where she sinks deeper and deeper.
Bold, manipulative, and real! Shoulder-mounted camera and tracking shots always raise the bar high. The story is straightforward from the very beginning. She has skills, but she has a past, and if she ever wants to make money, she has to go rogue. And writer/director John Patton Ford and actress Aubrey Plaza capture that from the opening shot. That mockery disguised in an interview’s clothes, the first job’s minor suspense, the second job’s increased tension, the painful reality of constantly working paycheck to paycheck and still making less than what you have to pay out, and the harsh realisation that your life keeps endlessly amounting to absolute nothing, gradually and painfully unfold like visual poetry. The question becomes then, what happens when the shit hits the fan after all the choices that one has made but they didn’t seem much of a choice at the time? Other than Plaza, Theo Rossi does a great job as Youcef (massive fan of him since Sons of Anarchy) and Gina Gershon lights up the shot she’s in even if she appears for a split second.
Excellent thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and will make you doubt the honesty you think you have with yourself. Is Emily turning to crime just because “the system” lets her down or has always been the criminal she revealed herself to be? Again, brilliant performances and brilliantly paced, built up and escalated.
Ultimately, what has always been known becomes once more apparent; the crime world has one rule, there are no rules. And the one thing that is certain, is that nothing is.
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
Stay safe!
P.S. Thoroughly thought title!
P.P.S. If you’ve been to such interviews, you know. You know…
After losing one of their twins in a tragic accident, a family of three relocates to Finland only to face a devastating reality.
Great ending, but somewhat lost on its way there. Let me start with a major concern because, overall, it’s a worth-watching horror with a great lead. The death of the kid (inciting incident) is discounted. This is by far the worst tragedy a family can face and it happens straight away and you don’t get to see a thing. There are visual manipulations that could manipulate the event and still make you feel lost for words. If you had visually experienced something, Rachel’s (Teresa Palmer) reaction would have shuttered you, and the rest of the family’s reactions would have affected you more. It just happens too fast, too soon. Having said that, let’s move on.
Understandably, Elliot’s behaviour becomes the thriller’s epicentre and the basic suspicion that something is fundamentally wrong. Due to preexisting knowledge, you know what has happened (or not), you just don’t know how it happened and, consequently, how it can be reversed. Revealing the “true” reason behind it is the first twist, something that will add flavour to the narrative and you’ll want to see where this is going. The convolution of the second one though, will make you question what you already know or you think you know, and, when it all comes to full circle, it’ll be up to you to decide whether it all made sense or not and if it was what you thought it was. If you ask me, the drama prevails while the horror fails.
After everything was said and done, I expected more of a European school of filmmaking from director Taneli Mustonen and not Hollywood. Representative examples of my expectations would be The Hole in the Ground (2019): https://kaygazpro.com/2022/05/16/the-hole-in-the-ground-2019-drama-horror-mystery/ and The Innocents (2021): https://kaygazpro.com/2022/03/23/the-innocents-2021-drama-horror-mystery/. Pay attention to Daniel Lindholm’s photography, it’s thrilling! Furthermore, loads of credits go to Teresa Palmer who deserves attention that she has not received. Again, if you would like to see her in something more realistic and European, I’d recommend Berlin Syndrome (2017). She’s brilliant!
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In the 1950s, a housewife starts gradually suspecting that the ostensibly peaceful suburbia she lives in is nothing like it seems to be.
Intriguing concept, but lacks depth. Suburbia, defined gender roles, Mccarthy’s paranoia, and a hint of mystery blend into an overly euphoric society that raises questions from the very beginning. Who are they? Where are they? Why are they there? What are the men doing? Why are they doing it? I’m not asking more so I don’t spoil it.
While all the ingredients are there and the premise of the film is intriguing, the plot lacks depth. Without telling you much, due to preexisting knowledge of certain mystery films, you will quickly get the idea of the town’s conspicuous facade. Once you do, what you can hope for is for something totally extraordinary to happen that will make you say: I didn’t see that coming! Will you be blown out of the water when you least expect it? I’ll leave that up to you to figure out.
Since its birth, art had always been questioning society and the world we live in. The film industry has done it on numerous occasions – I’m not naming films to not betray the narrative – and Don’t Worry Darling is no exception. Shane and Carey Van Dyke’s story and Katie Silberman’s script are exciting and Olivia Wilde’s lens captures that excitement but not necessarily the thrill; the suspense’s buildup and climax. Does it worth a watch? Yes. Even though there is an agenda that reflects today’s troubled and confused society? Yes. To me though, Don’t Worry Darling is a prime example of theory contradicting practice. It is directed by a woman with the intent to empower women, but, in reality, both men and women messed it up in the process and the film paid the price. For more BS on Hollywood trying to be diverse, ask actress KiKi Layne on what she has to say: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10731256/trivia?item=tr6531755
Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Olivia Wilde, KiKi Layne, Gemma Chan, Chris Pine, and the rest of the cast perform well, but surely you’ll find their performances a lot better elsewhere.
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The atrocities of WWI as seen through the eyes of a young soldier.
A brutal and soul-wrenching view at the real face of war… Walking on the shoulders of giants, such as Apocalypse Now (1979) Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Red Thin Line (1998), All Quiet on the Western Front earns its rightful place in the pantheon of war films.
The first element that stands out is James Friend’s captivating photography. The beautiful landscapes will be the first visual to catch your attention… followed by the human justification of the worst violence, called war. While perfectly framed, its ugliness remains daunting and always unspeakable.
Based on the book by Erich Maria Remarque, director Edward Berger has managed to pull off what seemed impossible in recent years; the atrocities of a war that tormented a whole continent and changed the fate of the rest of the world. While this is the third film based on the book, Berger claims that it is another adaptation of the book and not a remake of the previous two films that owe their success to the horrendous events described by Remarque who experienced that war firsthand. And so does this one. All Quiet on the Western Front is Germany’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category of the 95th Academy Awards in 2023 and also Germany’s most expensive Netflix film. It is worth noting that none of the wonderful efforts behind the camera would matter if the people in front of it didn’t do such an excellent job. Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuh, Aaron Hilmer, Moritz Klaus, Edin Hasanovic, Daniel Brühl, and the rest of the cast’s performance is purely triumphant.
Warning: This is not an easy watch. It depicts realities that no generation can tolerate, especially ours. Yet, certain human monsters, as I compose this, make people relive those abhorrent years while they enjoy the comfort of their own couch and warmth.
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An ostensibly random encounter turns into an elaborative secret operation against a prime suspect of a heinous crime.
Slow-burn, dark, compelling, and different! The Australian filmmaking school at its best! The introduction, disclosure, and development of Mark and Henry will blow you out of the water. This is the character development that film schools refer to. Who they were in the first act and who they are revealed to be in the end will keep applying constant pressure against your chest. By unfolding these characters along with the mission’s extent and nature, writer/director Thomas M. Wright creates a mixture that slowly and mentally painfully comes closer and closer to imploding. The charismatic thespians Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris put heart and soul into their characters and, while I usually say “shine” in front of the camera, in this instance, they put life’s light out, hence that constant pressure on your chest. Jada Alberts’ performance immensely contributes to the deprivation of the human psyche’s light.
There is not a lot I can say without ruining the experience for you so I can only urge you to turn off your lights and put your phones on silent to enjoy an incredible Australian cinematic experience. The script is solid, the editing converts the story into an intricate plot, and everything you get to know, you get to know it when you need to and not when you want to. Interestingly, what you don’t get to know is hinted at or implied, leaving it up to you to interpret it – the polar opposite of what Hollywood offers.
The beginning, as well as the ending, are visual poetry. The narrated images serve as an expression of feelings that eerily initiate and befittingly conclude this journey. Based on the book by Katie Kyriacou and a real-life haunting case, Wright creates a dark and heavy-on-the-soul masterpiece that, once seen, will not be easily forgotten.
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Eight terminally ill young men and women find companionship at a place where nothing is what it seems and gather at night to exchange horror stories.
Millennial horror with some pleasant surprises! So… It is presented as if Ilonka gets the short straw in life and she happens to find… Hold on… that’s not right. A seventeen-year-old getting the news that they are going to die soon should not be treated as a “short straw”. It’s heartbreaking, demoralising, earth-shattering… actually, it’s something that cannot be described in words. And, here, it’s been described a lot and utterly watered down. Then, to an even greater extent, apply that to every kid involved.
As if that’s not enough… one of my favourite worst practices in films nowadays, the one that I have spoken about numerous times, can also be found here; the forced diversity. And whoever thinks that Hollywood gives everyone an opportunity in this way and that I shouldn’t be a stuck-up b!@£#, I would say that I only accept that theory if everyone couldn’t as well be an underwear or a fragrance model. Where is the opportunity for obese young’uns or unattractive youngsters? All of them are good-looking young men and women and that’s amazing, but destroys the illusion of whatever realism can a series like this offer, distracts from the story, undermines human intelligence, and only becomes a crowd-pleaser. More credits, on this occasion, will have to go to Ruth Codd (Anya) whose character allows her to be more expressive than the others.
Other than that, here’s what you sign up for: Editing that cuts to close-up reactions so you constantly know exactly how everyone feels. Dialogues that are 100% scripted where everyone knows exactly what to say, how to say it, when to say it, and who to say it to. Jokes that are not funny. Childish misunderstandings and childish reactions to them, emphasised by the editing mentioned above. Then, as also mentioned above, clichéd characters portrayed by model-like actors/actresses who challenge nothing, really.
As for the stories themselves, they are original. They are great bedtime stories, and while not horror, they are eerily entertaining. Their narrative will hype you up, but the visuals will somewhat let you down. I believe it would be great if one could listen to these stories in an audio form (podcast?). This way, our own images would have been created and we would have, potentially, enjoyed them more.
It seems like I don’t have a lot of positives to say so, I’m going to stop here. Part of the reason is that Mike Flanagan has raised the bar very high with his previous miniseries and films and this one, cannot possibly reach it. It has nothing to do with the actors and actresses. They shine in front of the camera, and I’m glad they all look so gorgeous. It is Flanagan who seems that he didn’t take their terminal state seriously and therefore their characters are as superficial as they are. As I have mentioned in a previous review, on Dahmer (2022): https://kaygazpro.com/2022/10/18/dahmer-monster-the-jeffrey-dahmer-story-2022-biography-crime-drama/, Netflix is responsible for superficial and mindless entertainment as well as films and series that can shock you to your core. Unfortunately, The Midnight Club belongs to the former category.
I am not sure how much control Flanagan had over this project so, if you’d like to watch a few of his best works, I definitely recommend The Haunting of Hill House (2018), The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), and The Midnight Mass (2021) – And, hopefully, The Fall of the House of Usher (2023) will be as amazing!
Despite my negative review, I would like to conclude with something that I got from the series’ overall vibe. Life is priceless and the ones who are fortunate enough to get to live it should not take it for granted. Because the less fortunate ones put up a real fight for it.
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The chronicle of the life of Jeffrey Dahmer, experienced through the lives of the people who knew him, or thought they knew him, and the ones who were unfortunate enough to cross paths with him.
It’s almost Halloween so this is my first choice for this festive period. A different type of boogeyman. A real one…
So far, Netflix has been behind superficial and mindless entertainment that makes one wonder how and why they could spend millions on such productions, and, on the other hand, it is responsible for films and mini-series that can shock you to your core. Dahmer is a representative example of the latter. Ryan Murphy, the man behind American Horror Story (2011), is hell-bent on making you feel uncomfortable and he 100% succeeds in doing so. While taking that into consideration, please, read below my review / short analysis, and, if you haven’t watched it, maybe pay attention to certain details. Then, if you have, even retrospectively, use my two cents to compare it to what you thought of it. My aim is to “bullet point” the way the narrative has been approached. Murphy…
… Throughout the episodes spends a significant amount of time trying to “blueprint” the reasons why Dahmer became the “person” he became. Reasons include, but are not limited to:
The hernia and anesthesia (mentioned twice).
Mother’s paranoia and lack of love.
Dad’s obsession with roadkill dissection.
The parent’s divorce.
Society’s homophobia (instigated the first murder?).
The police’s incompetence (mentioned numerous times) and its cinematic depiction give a justification or seek a reason behind Dahner’s psychopathic and murderous tendencies. I presume there is an argument there that if he had been caught and stopped, these tendencies wouldn’t have developed (Dahmer mentions it had become too easy).
Towards the end though, Dahmer himself suspects that he was probably born like this…
It feels like the blame needs to be shared or has to be put on someone so Dahmer’s mentality and, consequently, actions make, somehow, sense. Pay attention to how much attention is given to the police not caring. Pay attention to the montage (thoughts) after his father asks himself if he could have done more and how deeply he blames himself. Pay attention to how the system didn’t care to counsel him and even let him go with a slap on the wrist after he got caught masturbating in public.
… Throughout the episodes shifts the focus of the series.
While the whole series is provocative and all episodes are spine-chilling, episode 6 is the one that, in my humble opinion, raises the most concerns. Tony Hughes is shown being born, loved, and struggling in life, but being nothing but optimistic. Murphy gets the audience to love him more than any other character and that is right after he got us wondering whose fault it is that Dahmer became one of life’s biggest mistakes and after taking some of the blame off of him to pass it around. Murphy, on this occasion, tricks us into believing that there could have been hope for Dahmer if he had found love, unconditional or otherwise, but, inevitably, hope painfully dies everywhere around him, after all. My question here is simple: Why? Why would you shift the focus like that halfway into it? What is the endgame? What is he aiming at as a filmmaker?
… Revisits the police’s incompetence for one last round.
So, the loss of faith in the system, again. Glenda’s story is one of the countless testimonials where incompetent people undermine others, considering them inferior because they look different. Another question: Who knew that incompetence ruled for so long (and still does)? Answer: Everyone did!
… Treats Jeffrey Dahmer as a case study.
Making it to the last two episodes, it’s not only the focus that shifts this time but also the tone. While it is undoubtedly brilliantly made, the last two episodes become what the rest of the series had avoided that far; “too” Hollywood. The series could as well have ended in episode 7 and further details, such as life in prison, and more, could be delivered with title cards. Yet, this is not the case. The comparison to serial killer John Wayne Gacy opens the door for Murphy to raise yet another question: Could someone like Dhamer be forgiven? Also, can someone like him find Jesus, repent and truly change? I think the answers have been given previously (see Episode 6) and there is no reason to keep investigating that. Furthermore, I believe that Murphy wanted to raise even more questions (as if there is not enough to take in that far): Could the two serial killers be considered as one and the same? In other words, do their motives differentiate them or should they both be treated socially, clinically, and legally the same way? Be it as it may, to me, the only positive here is that we get more of Niecy Nash’s wonderful acting.
And that applies to every actor/actress participating in the series. Without the charismatic acting of, first and foremost, Evans Peter, and then Richard Jenkins, Molly Ringwald, Michael Learned, Karen Malina White, Rodney Burford, Shaun Brown, and everyone who even briefly appears in front of the camera, the series wouldn’t have been the same.
Conclusion
The series is, purposefully, manipulative and the order of the tragic and horrific events becomes, cinematically, as important as the events themselves. The non-chronological way of telling the story, the importance of when to start and how to finish, and what to include and what to leave out are all part of a narrative that, as stated above, is meant to shock. Every episode becomes a testament to Dahmer’s character, and every episode builds up his gradual monstrosity, which raises more and more questions about the world we live in. Speaking of the monstrosity, I’ll leave you with some food for thought. Keeping in mind that this is a real person when the series’ title reads: Dahner – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, what kind of monster does it refer it to?
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
Stay safe!
P.S. It’s funny how Netflix raises the issue of Lionel Dahmer profiting from the book and the publishing company from the graphic novel. If you know what I mean…
After an apocalyptic disaster, a girl with certain skills and her paralysed father are trying to find a cure for the planet while trying to survive.
Intriguing, refreshing, beautifully flawed, and utterly atmospheric. Human hubris… the cause behind the apocalypse in numerous sci-fi/thrillers becomes here as well the reason behind our world’s ending. Thinking of knowing what we are doing and having mastered God’s complex we once more ruined nature and she triumphally returned the favour. From then on, it’s just a matter of surviving, adapting, and trying to find miraculously a solution to the calamity we so successfully caused.
As stated in the beginning, it is refreshing but not necessarily original. Having said that, it is a (cinematically) satisfactory and at the same time unpleasant view of how our post-apocalyptic world would look if that certain disaster occurred (no spoilers). Unlike Hollywood, the visual effects here only serve the narrative’s development without overshadowing it and without attempting to impress you. Writers/directors Kristina Buozyte and Bruno Samper offer a unique European perspective, made in the rural landscapes of Lithuania. Extra credits should be given to the cinematographer Feliksas Abrukauskas for the eerie and nightmarish mise-en-scène (everything that exists in the frame). Last but not least, a huge round of applause goes to the film’s wonderful cast: Raffiella Chapman, Eddie Marsan, Rosy McEwen, and Richard Brake.
Highly recommended to hardcore sci-fi fans and to everyone who loves paying attention to details!
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After meeting accidentally in Italy, a Dutch and a Danish couple meet up again for a weekend in the Dutch countryside where things go awfully wrong.
Shockingly suspenseful! It is the little things that will make your heart skip a beat. While nothing is ostensibly happening in Italy, Sune Kolster’s music wants you to know that something will happen. What seems innocent or just odd in the beginning will get unbearably awkward and uncomfortable later. The slow-paced editing builds up the narrative in a manner that makes the audience a narrator who knows more than the Danish couple. But neither we nor them can foresee what is about to happen. A prime example of editing (or lack thereof) is the moment where Agnes is told what to do on the table – the perfect establishment shot that involves actions/reactions simultaneously is like a volcano ready to errupt. Other instances of incredible pace and rhythm involve the dancing competition and then the chaos that follows after that.
There is nothing much to say without ruining the experience for you so I’ll keep it short and conclude with the great acting. Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Fedja van Huêt, Karina Smulders, and the kids play beautifully their part (I’m sure the kids don’t have the full picture), adding to a realism that will cut your breath. Writer/director’s Christian Tafdrup visual explication of evilness becomes a spine-chilling reminder that, arguably, the invention of monsters such as werewolves, vampires, and zombies might be our way of coping and/or even projecting a possessed “darkness” that we could never admit to ourselves…
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏 and prayers for Hurricane Ian’s victims!
A small-time drug dealer struggles to get a legitimate job and, before knowing it, he dives deeper and deeper into the criminal world.
A reality that doesn’t sound like Greek to any Greek. Co-writer/director Fokion Bogris captures through his lens the reality of the Athenian streets and the petty, unorganised crime like few have before him. From a narrative’s point of view, using profusely “lowlifes”, Bogris challenges toxic masculinity, personal and social insecurities, and homophobia through characters that have loads to hide and plenty to lie about. Everyone wants to “score big” or live the “easy life” with the least possible effort, crossing the lines of immoral and illegal without even realising it or caring about it.
From a filmmaking point of view, he creates a neo-noir atmosphere and a sense of realism that numerous members of the Greek audience will identify themselves with. While “realism” in film theory is a subject that opens a lot of cans of worms that make theorists (endlessly) argue with each other, in this instance, what I mean is that, through its minimal editing, it reduces the shot-reverse-shot techniques and, depending on the subject matter, it focuses on either the action or the reaction. In either case, both become – intentionally or unintentionally – funny as, more often than not, the characters’ close-ups express the intended feelings. The same applies when all characters are included in the shot and the audience gets to experience everyone’s feelings simultaneously. Add the colossal amount of slang and vulgar language to the mix and the result enhances the realistic effect to the point of surrealism; a movement that, arguably, can characterise numerous societies nowadays.
That particular filmmaking path, paved initially by writer/director Yannis Economides, has upped the game for the Greek cinema and the Greek filmmakers and has given the actors the opportunity to express themselves in a way they struggled to do before, present society in a way that could not be really presented before, and make a statement that the Greek cinema can be as competitive and daring as anybody else’s. Having said that, that school of thought wouldn’t exist now if filmmakers such as Theodoros Angelopoulos, Pantelis Voulgaris, Constantine Giannaris, and Panos H. Koutras (and many more) hadn’t offered so much to the film industry.
Finally, the last round of applause goes to the cast that shines in front of the camera: Vagelis Evangelinos, Stathis Stamoulakatos, Maria Baloutsou, Vasilis Anastasiou, and Sissy Toumasi.
Amercement is definitely worth your while as it’s an eye-opener, “welcoming” its audience to the dark side of the… world as you know it.
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When a dead body is found in the marshes, a recluse young woman becomes immediately the prime suspect.
Engaging, thought-provoking, and deeply emotional! The brilliant opening sequence that promises a lot starts delivering immediately. The found body (inciting incident) and the accusation of Kya Clark lead to the flashback that reveals the American South’s problems in an emotional yet non-judgmental way. The domestic abuse and the notion of the outcast immediately prevail in the film, something that will get you to know Kya, humanise her before anybody else does, and, consequently, make up your mind about her way before the lawyer, the judge, the jurors, and the crowd does.
Love, innocence, fragility, and the happiness found in everything that society ignores or learned how to turn the blind eye to, set the foundation for the drama to flourish, hook you in, and open the gates to the mystery that has already started permeating it. Based on Delia Owen’s novel and Lucy Alibar’s script, Olivia Newman’s directing provides a good taste of the South of the 60s – leaving out or smoothly bypassing (surprisingly?) THE major problem – but also leaving a lot of food for thought behind, such as the lack of individual morals, the long collapse of societal ideals, and the downright detachment from nature. One of the hats behind this beautiful production is worn by the amazing Reese Witherspoon.
Daisy Edgar-Jones (the British pulling a fantastic South American accent), David Strathairn, the man whose performance has never failed to impress, Taylor John Smith (as Tate), and the brief appearance of the diverse Garret Dillahunt create this ecstatic atmosphere that blends the thrill and the romance and lead this journey to its rightful destination. A destination that will raise questions from as back as the court and the presentation of facts to the man’s reaction upon his discovery – no spoilers.
Highly recommended to everyone who has ever felt, even momentarily, the way Kaya has her whole life.
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
Stay safe!
P.S. Take it from someone who has never been a fan of Taylor Swift: The end-credits song is Oscar-worthy and a perfect match to the film’s narrative! It left me gobsmacked!
The blessings and tribulations of the man who left behind him an everlasting legacy.
Mesmerising, vibrant, insightful, and saddening. The beauty of Buz Luhrmann’s films lies, predominantly, in his sense of pace and rhythm; in his sense of editing. Elvis introduces a “superhero” whose powers are music and showmanship, and Luhrmann comes on really strong, really fast. In the first half hour, he manages to build the foundation of an icon that is destined to follow a meteorite’s trajectory. What comes next is the introduction of tribulations of the still rapidly rising star. Segregation laws, massive hysteria, national paranoia, and personally costly decisions shape the image of a man, unknown to the public, who has to face demons as you and I do. And Luhrmann showcases that the world keeps changing while trying to fit Elvis in it – while not sparing the details of how hard that is. Notably, finding and losing (only to find one last time) that place, when everything around moves so fast, is the most crucial part of the hero’s journey.
Luhrmann puts on an electrifying and prestigious show! He builds up the rise and (internal) fall of Elvis as we know him. Now is the time though to praise the people who are also responsible for that show. First and foremost Austin Butler (Elvis) – who we might see at the Oscars. He took the role amongst A-list actors way more known than he is and all I can say is that he fully deserved it. His performance now will always be associated with Elvis Presley; he became Elvis Presley. Tom Hanks shines as his disgusting manager, he is inarguably one of the greatest actors alive. Sam Bromell, Craig Pearce, and Jeremy Doner kept the script non-linear and tight and offered a fresh and unique perspective. Mandy Walker whose lens expresses all the intended feelings. Jonathan Redmond and Matt Villa masterly weave these feelings together and lead to my very first comment on the immaculate pace and rhythm that flows through Luhrmann’s films. Costume designer, Catherine Martin, goes the extra mile and gets hundreds of costumes to dress up Elvis and the rest of the cast and I’m positive we’ll also see her at the Oscars. Last but not least, extra credits go to EVERYONE else in front and behind the camera who worked on the film.
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
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P.S. To corroborate my point, if you want to get an idea of Luhrmann’s sense of editing, watch Moulin Rouge! (2001), and more specifically, the “El Tango de Roxanne” sequence (01:18:08 – 01:25:31). It lasts 443” and contains 419 cuts – approximately, one cut per second (I had to watch it at half the speed to count all of them)! In editing’s (unofficial) terms… a proper “frame-fucking”!
Two female couples get attacked by a father and his son while partying, but their revenge only causes further calamity.
Sadistic, brutal, and shockingly atrocious! I’ll keep it short… You know what you sign up for from the perversive opening sequence! What succeeds it is terrible filmmaking techniques, no matter how you look at it. Script, directing, acting, photography, and editing, do it no favours whatsoever but don’t be fooled by any of that, its sickness permeates the rest of the sequences, solely seeking to shock. Now, the shock works on two levels: On how shockingly bad the film itself is made and how shockingly disgusting its content is.
I would recommend Trauma as much as I would recommend A Serbian Film (2010) which is not at all. At least, the latter is well-made. But if you are really looking for a brilliantly made disturbing horror, I would definitely recommend Martyrs (2008). Personally, I prefer psychological horrors as they, among others, delve into the abyss of our minds and souls, but any well-made horror intrigues me the same. And this isn’t one of them. Trauma is aimlessly selling raw gore and loses on every other front.
It is not easy to make a film! Never mind a film that inspires awe, evokes the intended feelings, has a purpose, and remains true to it. All of the above and everything that has thrilled you, moved you, amused you, and made you fall in love with cinema… is what Trauma lacks of.
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
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P.S. Kudos go only to the person or team that made the poster.
Despite her mother’s best efforts, an ancient spirit kidnaps a young girl in an attempt to serve her forever.
A taste of Balkan folklore with a pinch of Witch (2016). As per Focus Features, the production company behind the film, it takes place in the 19th century FYROM – they said Macedonia, but let’s leave it at that. They also said that writer/director Goran Stolevski based the film’s shape-shifting legends on stories coming from his family. That sounds highly likely as all Balkan countries are inundated with such legends and myths which, partially, shaped those societies as we know them today. Having traveled through the Balkans a few times, I’ll tell you that the people, especially in villages, are nothing but welcoming and warm, still keeping to their norms and traditions. Just like you see in the film.
What Stolevski has achieved is a (Malick-esque) chronicle of the perception of life as seen through the eyes of a soul that knows nothing of “good” or “bad”, unaffected by morality and immorality respectively; “… like a river. It flows and flows… and still stays in the same spot.” And, as such, I’ll dare say that Stolevski’s perspective is unique. The way I see it, he raises significant questions: Does evil have a choice in life? Is evil predestined to remain evil? Even better, can evil be actually evil when that meaning is unknown to it?
Technically speaking, Matthew Chuang’s cinematography is immaculate and it needs to be praised highly. He mounts the camera over the shoulder and his tracking shots, from full to close-ups, deliver all the intended feelings and emotions. An extra round of applause goes to the whole cast that shines in front of the camera. Maybe the amazing Noomi Rapace is the main marketing attraction, but EVERYONE is spectacular! Both in front and behind the camera.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. The question I’ll leave you with is, does life run in a full circle?
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Two men come back to rural Mississippi after WWII, become friends, but only face bigotry and racism.
One of Netflix’s greatest and most underrated films! Directing, cinematography, writing, editing, acting, and the numerous departments that worked behind the cameras is the reason why they say that it takes a village to make a film. Based on Hillary Jordan’s novel, co-writer/director Dee Rees brings to life a film that many neglected, underappreciated, or just turned the blind eye to, but Netflix primarily distributed, after premiering at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival – received a long-standing ovation.
Every sequence has something to tell. Every sequence moves the story forward, holding cinematic techniques that “teach” filmmaking. For example, when Ronsel is on the bus, showing without telling, the shot speaks volumes about the atrocious outcome of Jim Crow’s segregation laws that divided the people. The same laws that Ronsel encountered while trying to exit the shop from the front door. Anger, frustration, and unfathomable sadness are the main emotions that take over, but Rees’s angle is not judgemental. Before and after, sequences such as the congregation at the church, Ronsel and Jamie opening up, and the KKK acting as jury, judge, and executioner can be thoroughly analysed in regard to acting, directing, cinematography, and editing. Rachel Morrison became the first female cinematographer to be nominated for an Oscar, and even though she didn’t win it, she earned everyone’s respect worldwide.
In front of the camera, Jason Mitchell, Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Mary J. Blige, Garrett Hedlund, Rob Morgan, Jonathan Banks, and the rest of the cast create incredible chemistry with utterly fulfilling performances. The fact that Mudbound is current and finds application to this day and age, indicates how much societies have failed. The fact that individuals make a positive difference though is what Rees aims at and, in the end, despair turns into hope. Without it, what are we left with, anyway? In addition, what do you think “Mudbound” means?
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P.P.S. My previous review was on The Gray Man (2022): https://kaygazpro.com/2022/08/02/the-gray-man-2022-action-thriller/. Inarguably, it wasn’t a positive one. And even though that is an original Netflix film and Mudbound isn’t, arguably, one can claim that what characterises the streaming giant is diversity, and another the utter lack of identity.
After her husband commits suicide, a young woman escapes to the countryside only to encounter horrors she would never expect.
A24… The production company that aims at the different, the radical, the unconventional. Starting off with Harper (Jessie Buckley) and only getting a glimpse of what is hunting her, we take the trip straight to the countryside where she’ll be residing for two weeks – that is the plan, anyway. Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear), the house owner with British-English you’ll definitely admire and will put a smile on your face, shows her around, and so, the main players and environment have been established. But…
The first plot point, the beautiful yet extremely scary tunnel, instigates the thrill; it is where your heart will skip the first beat. From then on, the naked man, the troubled kid, the eccentric Vicar, the police’s incompetence, and everything that happens till the end Act II escalates the horror to the next level. Not a lot can be explained but that’s what enhances the mystery. The eerie and haunting operatic music throughout the montage sequences will keep you at the very edge of your seats, inarguably, mouth agape. “Paranoia” doesn’t even begin to describe it! Beware of the entities presented inside the church. Also, beware of the dandelions as well. Both of them play a significant role to the narrative’s understanding. And this is where I stop.
Alex Garland, the writer/director of Ex-Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018) and writer of 28 Days Later (2002) and Never Let me Go (2010) is not a crowd-pleaser, and, consequently, is not for everyone. His lens serves his narrative well, offering realistic thrills to surrealistic scenarios – from alien invasions to men going utterly berserk. Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear absolutely shine in front of the camera!
If you are not British or not accustomed to British folkloric tales and myths, you’ll be utterly confused. If you are, you’ll get the gist, but won’t be able to explain it, anyway. And that’s the goal. In an attempt to find answers, I only got more confused so, as intended by the filmmakers, I only provided a few possible explanations to myself – without meaning that they are the right ones. Because there is no right one.
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Solidarity for Ukraine 🇺🇦 🙏
Stay safe!
P.S. In reality, in the English countryside, you will encounter the most beautiful places and the most beautiful people.
A young woman moves with her husband from America to Romania, and soon she realises that someone is watching every move of hers.
A deceiving, slow-burn thriller with a great leading actress. Why deceiving, huh? What you know and what you think you know is not the same. Ostensibly, the plot revolves around a young woman who is afraid that someone is watching her, and, potentially, following her. The subplot revolves around the same young woman who is lonely, in a foreign country, alone (for the most part), arguably depressed, and who neither speaks nor understands a word of what everyone’s saying. Until you know for sure, the line between the plot and the subplot is vague.
Zack Ford’s script and Chloe Okuno’s lens keep the narrative restricted. Okuno, like a watcher (pun intended), follows Julia wherever she goes and depicts reality as perceived through her eyes, only. Respectively, Michael Block’s editing discloses what you need to know, hiding carefully what you want to. The result of both is the deception mentioned above. Maika Monroe is an amazing and massively underrated actress. Watching It Follows (2014) and The Guest (2014) one can tell how much still she has to offer, especially in the horror/thriller genre. Also, Burn Gorman’s portrayal as a lonely man is brilliant.
It is a horrible feeling to be surrounded by an unfamiliar environment, language, and people, especially when being in an unstable mental state. Nothing and no one is what they seem to be. And Okuno and Monroe nail that feeling!
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