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nickm3513
Reviews
Marriage Story (2019)
Probably Exactly What You're Expecting
Yes, the couple gets divorced.
Yes, they struggle over the custody of their child.
Yes, things get nasty.
Yes, some (not all) of the lawyers are a**holes.
But despite all that, I still found myself thoroughly engaged with this film. The script is great. It will still shock you and may even move you to tears. The whole thing feels very real, like your are wrapped right up in it. This is also conveyed through the realism of the characters. It may be a little biased towards the father (the film is based on his own divorce), but if you watch closely you will see he does not hide all his flaws as a father or husband.
Overall- great but not perfect
P.S: Right now it's pretty popular to make fun of the acting on Twitter, and I will admit that one fight scene is a little over the top. But its a single scene (towards the very end of the film!) taken completely out of context. It's lost all of the build up, and therefore looks much more flat than it really is.
Cry of the Banshee (1970)
Hard to Watch
Gratuitous rape scenes and a terribly constructed plot... really there is nothing redeeming here. I usually like old, campy, Vincent Price movies, but not this one.
Annihilation (2018)
Stalker meets the Color out of Space meets Natalie Portman
This is a science fiction film for people who really love the genre. It's not just an alien adventure movie. It attempts to introduce entirely unique perspectives on living creatures and the laws of nature. The unraveling of these elements is delivered with suspense and mystery.
But it also doesn't deliver any easy answers to the questions it raises. Many details ARE left unexplained. This may perturb some viewers. But if you like to think for yourself what something may mean or otherwise just draw your own conclusions, you will enjoy this. Annihilation is abstract, surreal, and visually stunning.
P.S.
It also has one of the most high-tension horror scenes I've ever seen. I literally shifted in my seat.
The Master (2012)
PTA is the Master, but I am not Freddie Quell
It's very clear to me why this film has polarized its audience. In scrolling across, I saw at least 5 people call this the worst film they've ever seen, and an innumerable call it a masterpiece. For me, it falls somewhere in the middle but below the midline.
Many of the film's parts were exceptional. The acting is deservedly raved about. I was convinced by the Master's (Hoffman) smooth talking and drawn to his radiating confidence. Freddie (Phoenix) many times made me physically uncomfortable. The music is also gripping, and a lot of the shots are gorgeous.
The film, however, is seriously lacking in substance and storyline. The ending left me feeling unsatisfied and wondering just what the point was. Freddie is our main character. He is a navy veteran with possible scoliosis that has sex with his aunt and drinks gasoline/ paint thinner cocktails. He can't keep a job due to his alcoholism and tendency towards violent outbursts. He then meets a charismatic cult leader named Dodd/ the Master, and is, for some reason, not only taken under Dodd's wing but also treated like family. Neither of the characters are moving in any discernible direction at any point in the film. At one point, Freddie up and leaves the cult. Then he comes back. Then he leaves again. Nothing is really driving these decisions. Dodd is questioned by his disciples after the release of his second book, but nothing becomes of that either.
There are some gripping sequences, specifically the moments where Freddie is being gaslit (don't blink, or the wall to window walk). But not enough here to make an engaging or even entertaining story.
Suspiria (2018)
"How did it feel? Like F%$&@ing an animal"
Let me start off by saying I consider the original Suspiria one of the all time classics of horror. This film is basically a complete reimagining. It's an hour longer than the original and completely different in plot points and narrative structure. The sound is much more subtle and the colors are bleak. It's lost most of the iconic Giallo/ Argento style, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think the film still works in its own right, however it's not without its own problems.
I liked that much more attention was paid to the ballet parts of the ballet school. The choreography of the dances was beautiful and mesmerising. It's ties to the satanic rituals of the coven were also interesting and unsettling. The final sequence, of which i won't speak too much about, was like a sensory overload.
But the story felt overlong. I really have no idea why the terrorist attack/hostage situation/ whatever was going on in the background in Berlin in the 1970s was included. It had no impact on the story. The cuts of the (biological) mother in Amish country I found confusing and not essential to conveying the story either. The twist regarding the (magical) Mother, revealed in the final sequence, also seemed to come out of left field. I was left wondering if I should have been rooting for Blanc all along- which I definitely wasn't. A change that was made, which I felt was at an expense to this film, was the exclusion of the slasher elements in the original Suspiria. Unfortunately, much of the terror of the film was lost along with it. This film instead focused much more heavily on the witchcraft, even revealing its existence very early on. This angle succeeded in consistently making me unsettled, but never really scared.
Overall, I found the film visually stunning but overall hard to really get into.
C+ Or 6/10