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Reviews
Scavengers Reign (2023)
Good, but the design was better than the story
The art and creepy-cute creatures were awesome and it had some good ideas, but then it re-hashed the same ones multiple times so we began to predict them. The story itself was also predictable. Plus, we didn't believe these people had been on the planet long enough to know so much about its medicines, flora and fauna, etc. And always the exact solution to every problem was available nearby. Some kind of theme about interconnectivity on the planet but we weren't quite clear on what it was. The characters were pretty distinctive. Azi was an ar*ehole at first but then abruptly became nice - we think she was meant to be prickly with a heart of gold but it felt jarring and inconsistent. Some things weren't revealed but we thought they should have been. The big bad chose not to use its powers so the protagonists could survive, otherwise it seems like it would have been indomitable. We also never quite got its motivations, but maybe missed some hints - was it just a veracious eater? Maybe some of the ideas could have used a bit more kneading. Overall definitely worth the watch despite our gripes because of the creature design. That really was exceptional at times.
Origin (2023)
An American realises discrimination isn't just American racism...
...but then fixates on the idea that caste is the "origin" of inequality rather than another of many outcome of prejudice. She also seems to reject the idea that greed and fear might catalyse discrimination, but I didn't understand why. Actually I don't think she ever mentions prejudice, which seems odd to me because it might serve better as an origin - maybe one of a handful - particularly as it helps explain why not all caste systems are racial. Maybe it's inconvenient to her theory. There are some studies that suggest prejudice is at least to some extent biological... so to conclude racism was "all made up" to create a caste system seems a bit reductive.
Also I might have missed it if there was an attempt made to explain what motivated the Nazis if it wasn't fear and greed, and I also think I partly agree with one of the characters that, though it was interesting, it was a bit dubious to claim the Nazis were fundamentally establishing a caste system just because they took inspiration from America. Maybe the book goes into these things more.
The emotional, biographical parts of the film were the most effective and had my wife and I at the verge of tears. However, a lot of the support acting felt staged, and the end of the film was tedious - the preachiness ramped up a fair bit and ultimately undermined the film's integrity.
Corner Office (2022)
The desire for actualisation
The corner office is where we all want to be, maybe it represents actualisation, the resolution of cognitive dissonance, enlightenment. And it's precisely the ramping up of our desperation to be there that motivates us to defend our happiness by validating our own behaviour to the point of extreme myopia. It's that defensiveness that causes us to treat one another competitively and contemptuously. I thought this was a compassionate take on the origins of interpersonal cruelty. Even the arbitrary austerity of authoritarianism is itself the result of that same need. I didn't consider this to be a comedy. At first I thought it was derivative but I came to feel it went deeper than that, and that the cliche setting was necessary. I loved the unreliable narrator and the idea that perhaps ultimately our need for peace and perfection may make us completely unreachable. Lots of interesting ideas to think about. And Jon Ham was excellent.
The Staircase (2022)
Strong to flawed
The acting was great and personally I enjoyed the pace. I like drama so I wasn't disappointed that it focussed on the people involved, in a way for me that made it worthwhile converting it from a documentary. I got the impression the show intentionally obfuscated things to make the case seem more complex than it was. I probably would have rated it higher but it was frustrating to me that they introduced several things, the owl, the previous victim (Ratliff), the coroner being pressured into saying Kathleen died from bludgeoning, the implied specific but ultimately ambiguous issues of the younger son - but then never told us what happened with those things. Seemed to me the previous Ratliff death made the guy guilty for sure, did they think we'd forget about it if they downplayed it or did I miss something? Also, the timeline was confusing, and in the second half seemed to get even more confusing. I dunno. It started out strong and became increasingly flawed. It was still above average quality to me; engaging, suspenseful, the way the mood was manipulated between scenes allowed for impressive transitions between comedy and tragedy and made me empathize with the characters a lot, the irreversible life and time lost by the documentarians. But I came away from it feeling it was a bit messy.
Vivarium (2019)
Existential horror
I thought it was very neat. It presents the analogy up front and then explores its implications clearly. They avoided the pretense of trying to obscure its meaning, but it still felt rewarding to me when they zipped it up at the end. It's as cynical as it gets, which I appreciated in terms of it making for a more unique kind of horror. It comforted me with dread. We think we're free to do as we choose, to create a meaningful life, but both the cuckoo and its unwitting foster parents are pre-programmed, permitted pleasure only where it serves to perpetuate the inescapably futile cycle. Actually it's kind of ironic that some who didn't enjoy the film felt compelled to stick it out until the end anyway...