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Reviews
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Atmospheric but dull
Recently rewatched this after seeing it in the cinemas. There is no denying it is visually and atmospherically stunning, but the original is such a classic - with so many other imitators - that living up to it would be unlikely. There were some interesting aspects that could have been pushed further: the framing in terms of climate change and ecological collapse was really interesting and I loved the scenes at the dump for conveying the sense of decay. But where the atmosphere was interesting, everything else just fell flat. Nowhere was this more evident than in Jared Leto's character Wallace. Everything about the script, the plot, and Leto's acting just came across as bloated and needlessly wordy. The last third of the movie lags terribly in the beautiful Las Vegas setting, before being redeemed by a stunning fight scene in the ocean. I can't help but feel there are similarities to Ridley Scott's Prometheus alien sequel which just drowned its own pretentious wordiness.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
A solid offering from a creative genius
Massive Lynch fan and have been looking forward to watching FWWM for quite some time. If you're a Lynch or twin peaks fan this is definitely worth watching. The terrible reviews following this after its initial release are wrong - however I don't agree with some recent assessment of FWWM as one of Lynch's masterpieces. Yes, all of the surreal weirdness is there and the opening 20 minutes is a great example of this. However, in a way the problem is not that it was too weird but that it was not weird enough - as a movie it's too constrained and tied to the essential plot points which match it up with the brilliant twin peaks. This forces a narrative arc that is more TV-like preventing the movie from truly expanding into what it is. In this sense it's a reverse of Mulholland Drive which was supposed to be a TV series but was turned into a movie - this is a movie that still feels too much like a missed TV season. Perhaps this is why the opening scene is of a TV set being destroyed.
It's definitely one of Lynch's darkest works and contains more explicit detail than is common in his other films. Perhaps my mind might change on FWWM when I watch the Twin Peaks: The Return however.
A solid film from one of my favourite directors - not a flop, but not an unsung work of genius. Worth watching, though.
Chernobyl (2019)
A perfect series
Incomparable - a TV series that is terrifying, haunting, eerie, human and rousing without at any moment veering into corny dialogue, exposition, or preaching. The first two episodes are the most terrifying episodes of TV I have ever seen and manage to combine surreal horror, attention to detail, along with an almost Lovecraftian otherworldliness. It is really hard to describe the haunting intensity of the depiction of the Chernobyl accident, and it is no exaggeration that this is something that will stay with me for some time and that I will return to.
The acting is excellent, as is the scripting, cinematography and pacing. It does such a good job of explaining the complexities of nuclear reactors while also leaving viewers feeling as uncertain as those drafted in to help.
There's not much else to say other than to feel that this is a masterpiece that achieves a level of seriousness that will not be matched for quite some time.
Under the Silver Lake (2018)
From homage to imitation
This movie starts out genuinely interesting, appearing to be a homage mash-up of the weirdness of Mulholland Drive, the quirkiness of the Big Lebowski, and the thriller mystery of Chinatown and Rear Window. At first this works, and the adaptation of noir thriller music and ambience to modern LA gels well. The murkiness of the plot somehow hangs together and the strange weirdness of the high society parties blend together well. About halfway through this starts to unravel though and the clear film references start to feel strained as the movie plot itself struggles to stand on its own. The hazy feeling of the protagonist being thrown from one encounter to the next works surprisingly well until we come to forced 'odd' dénouements which have no real content other than being out-there. Lynch's weirdness, even at its most gratuitous, has a firm conceptual vision underpinning it which this film lacks. It simply doesn't know how to end after ramping up the oddball intrigue, promising something or can't deliver and shouldn't try to. Without its own clear vision, the film's homage dissolves into imitation.