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ericobnn
Reviews
1976 (2022)
Lots of anticipation that never pays off
This movie features an excessive amount of of little scenes that hint at, or foreshadow, something sinister, but that are never referenced again later on. They open a "plot thread" in the viewer's mind (e.g. "this person is suspicious", but since that person will never appear again to confirm or refute the viewer's initial hypothesis, the loose thread is never tied). It's the accumulation of these that makes for a frustrating experience by the end. It's as if the director expected the viewer to have forgotten most of those little occurrences by the end... shame on the director for underestimating the audience.
The protagonist's motives are never really explained and her personality is barely showcased, making for a flat main character that the viewer doesn't really empathize with. She comes across as just a generic, blasé, and cold rich woman that does the things she does because... reasons.
The scenes sometimes feel poorly connected to each other, with sudden jumps in time that skip over important things that (presumably) happened, but which are never shown, leaving the viewers to have to fill the gaps themselves. "Discontinuous" is perhaps the word I'm looking for.
A decidedly disappointing experience.
Cities of Last Things (2018)
Disappointingly disjointed
The movie is divided into 3 parts detailing 3 different times in the character's life, beginning with old age, then middle age, and finally teen age. The problem is that rather than being one cohesive whole, each part feels too separate, like standalone mini-movies. His teenage part, especially, feels pointless and completely removed from the other two. The story would not lose anything if this part was removed. And being half an hour long, that's an unacceptable waste of the viewer's time.
The filmography, acting, etc. Are all very good, but none of that can make up for a story told badly. The script is also rather sparse, with the main character speaking very very little throughout the whole movie, and way too many things being poorly explained as a result. It's difficult to understand what's going on or the character's motivations at times.
The Choice (2016)
Didn't last 10 minutes
Girlfriend and I randomly picked this movie on Netflix because the premise looked interesting (based on Netflix's 2-line blurb). We dropped it just after the 10 minute mark, which is probably a new record. The dialogue is very cringeworthy and the acting, especially of the main heroine, is VERY bad. We very rarely comment or care about bad acting, the vast majority of actors are just passable and okay. This one wasn't! She overacts her facial expressions to a frankly ridiculous degree.
Only after coming here to IMDB did I find out it was a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. I guess that explains how extremely hard to believe and cringeworthy the plot and dialogue were (judging from the first 10 minutes, but most likely throughout the whole flick as well).
The Lady in the Van (2015)
Very boring
Exceedingly mediocre script and storyline where nothing ever happens. One of the few movies in in living memory that I stopped watching midway through out of sheer boredom. The male protagonist especially is as bland as they come, I had zero interest in him as a person. Maggie Smith's character could have been a lot better too.
The One (2021)
Like one long Black Mirror episode
If you love Black Mirror, chances are very high that you will like this series. I really don't get some of the reviews saying the acting is stiff; save for one side character, I find the acting pretty good in general. There are plenty of twists, and all the arcs of all the side characters were interesting. Looking forward to the next season! It's only not 10/10 because of a couple plot holes and a one really piss-poor job of a scene which bothered me. But oh well, it's very rare that a work of fiction is perfect, and it doesn't have to be.
Coda (2019)
Extraordinary sensibility
This movie is of a sensibility rarely encountered, one of those that make you feel like you will become a better human being for having watched it. It touches upon such themes of the meaning of life, grief, old age, self-esteem, what it means to be a musician, among others, with astounding delicacy and grace.
The only reason I took off a couple stars is because it is a little too many idle/filler scenes that are supposed to convey the protagonist's instrospection and mourning, but are too frequent and long and end up being a rather boring, even taking into account the wonderful music that always accompanies those scenes. I found myself using the "advance 10 seconds" button of Netflix too often. If the movie was some 20 minutes shorter it would be perfect. But don't let this deter you from watching; this is a fantastic work that is very much worth experiencing!
Benny's Video (1992)
Extremely slow, boring, and uneventful
Besides the "big event" of the movie which happens in the first half hour and which was really well done, the other hour or so of screentime is mind-numbingly boring. Nothing really happens, and everything is slooooow. It's one of those artsy movies that thinks it's interesting to show a family having dinner for what probably was two entire minutes of nothing but a static shot of them eating and the sound of silverware clacking. There are loads of other pointless and time-waster scenes like this. There is very little dialogue in this film overall.
The movie makes up for the lack of substance with fillers. I have no no respect for these kinds of films.
Rebecca (2020)
Better than the 1940 classic
I watched this without knowing anything about Rebecca or even that it was a book, and I quite enjoyed it. It is generally well acted and has good suspense. Then reading the reviews here where so many people bash this for "having no reason to exist" given that there is a 1940 version from Hitchcock which is apparently perfect, I went ahead and watched that one for comparison. I must go against the grain here and say that the Hitchcock version is significantly worse (gasp!).
For instance, the performance of the actor who plays Maxim in the 2020 version was nothing to write home about, but 1940's Maxim is so badly acted it's almost comical (in contrast to many good actors in that film such as the new Mrs. de Winter, Ms. Danvers and Favell). Furthermore, the music simply does not match the scenes at all (happy, cookie-cutter, bland music permeates the entire movie, playing even during suspenseful scenes, creating a massive mismatch between the moods conveyed by you're seeing and what you're hearing). The new version did a much better job of handling psychological tension and suspense.
In short, I really have no clue why so many people are bashing this remake and saying that the 1940 is better, other than "OMG IT'S HITCHCOCK SO IT'S OBVIOUSLY A MASTERPIECE, AND IF YOU DISAGREE YOU ARE AN UNCULTURED LOUT". Sigh.
Lo que podríamos ser (2018)
Very flat characters
This film only has 3 characters that have any relevance to the story: the main character, his love interest who is also a main character, and his female best friend, a sidekick to him. Each of these characters is entirely defined by these labels and have very little development beyond them.
The main character is suddenly and absolutely obsessed by his (somewhat older) Film Studies college professor. We never get any glimpse of his past history for a clue what could have caused this sudden obsession. He never really does anything during the film that isn't related to trying to conquer his professor. His whole identity is defined as: "someone who is in madly, madly in love with his professor".
Plus, his methods of conquest are extremely creepy, and even psychopathic, involving even extreme self-humiliation in public, all in the name of "love" (think along the lines of someone getting a loudspeaker and loudly professing their undying love to person X in a packed town square). It's horribly cringy and makes you wonder how his tactics could possibly ever work on... anyone, basically.
But they do! The professor, who presents herself as a mature and independent woman, is initially flabbergasted by her student's childish and mentally-deranged advances, but somehow inexplicably warms up to, and consequently falls in love with him, despite his creepiness. We never get any clue as to why. Was she abused in past relationships, which led her to becoming emotionally needy to such a point as to have such low standards? Who knows!
His (female) best friend is characterized solely by her undying devotion to the main character, supporting him through thick and thin and encouraging his extremely questionable advances no matter what. We get no further information on this character besides this one trait.
Combined with a very clichéd ending, the fact that the characters in this film are merely manifestations of archetypes/tropes, rather than proper Characters, make this movie a pretty darn bad choice given the hundreds of better options avaliable on Netflix.
Mujeres Arriba (2020)
Very fun and women-empowering film
It is very funny, and I'm not usually a fan of comedy movies and I don't laugh very easily. It has a clever script, great actors, some very awkward and funny situations, and has a positive message that empowers women to get more pleasure in their relationships, plus a lot of useful sex-life advice.
I was initially put-off by the actor's way too histrionic style; I was told they are actually comedians, not actresses per-se, so it can be over-the-top at times. I watched 5 minutes and decided it wasn't for me. But after my friend's insistence that I gave it another chance, I did, and I'm glad I did, because it really does get much better very quickly and I got used to the acting style in no time. The movie was a blast!
I was shocked to come here and give the good rating this movie deserves, only to find out it has a score of 3.4! It absolutely deserves a lot more than that. Maybe its feministic undertones triggered a few too many overly-traditional men? Who knows. (disclaimer: I'm a man myself)
Princess (2014)
One of the worst films I've ever seen, and not due to subject matter
Let me get something straight out of the way: there are people who give poor ratings to a film because they are offended by its subject matter, that is, they use their voting power as an attempt of censorship. I'd like to assure you that I am not one of those people. In fact, I prefer films that tackle difficult subjects because those are usually the ones that teach you something new, make you re-evaluate old prejudices or see certain things in a new light. In short, I firmly believe it's by being willing to get out of one's comfort zone that one evolves.
This isn't a bad film because it offends my sensibilities; it offends my sensibilities by being a bad film. The only things going for it are the acting and filmography.
In terms of telling a story, it's really bad, especially the almost non-existent narrative coherence. The film jumps from scene to scene without much logical connection between them, characters do weird things to each other one scene and are completely-fine-as-if-nothing-ever-happened the next scene, and it is, more often than not, impossible to discern what actually happened and what is perhaps a product of the main character's imagination. My girlfriend, who watched it with me, described the film as "crazy" at first, and as the credits rolled, "totally pointless", referring to how incredibly unsatisfying the ending was. It's a film that sets a lot of things up but ultimately doesn't deliver on ANY of them. It was 1h30 of our lives wasted.
Another way to describe it: you could randomly re-arrange all the scenes in this film and it would still have the same coherence as it currently has, which is to say, none. It feels like the scenes were randomly arranged to begin with.
How the other 6 reviewers thought this film wasn't bad is beyond my capacity to comprehend.
For a much, much superior film dealing with a similar subject, see "Una".
Dry Martina (2018)
Feels like reality
I'm not sure why exactly, but this film feels almost like reality. Maybe it's the great acting, sincere script, the mundane things they do, or the most likely culprit: how thoroughly flawed and rather insane all the characters are, which give them a powerful dose of believability not found in most other movies. Of course, there are still "surreal" dialogues and situations in the script, but overall, this film feels exquisitely real to me.
However, it suffers from being aimless at times, especially in the last half hour or so, but nothing too bad. I give it a 7.5/10, and it's worth watching!
Gerald's Game (2017)
People saying this is boring are tools
Reading some of the reviews, they complain the movie bored them to tears, should only have lasted half an hour, nothing is going on etc. But I couldn't disagree more. These people just have low attention spans. Of course, she's stuck in a bed for almost the whole time, but that's not the point. It's the wonderful script (the dialogue between her and the hallucinations she has of her husband and even herself) that perfectly convey the emotional aspects of being in her situation. I don't like movies with slow pacing where nothing really happens (just read some of my other reviews), but plenty happens in this movie; just in the psychological and character-development arenas rather than the external world. Every scene has a purpose. I did not feel bored once during the entire 1h30m runtime.
I think the people complaining are just too used to what "terror", sadly, has become nowadays: a jumpscare every couple minutes. This film has none of that, but I was gripped nonetheless by the amazing acting and fantastic storytelling abilities of the script. Give me raw psychological dread over jumpscares any day of the week.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this film, and really cannot find a significant fault with it, thus my unusual 10 rating.
Ninguém Tá Olhando (2019)
Loved every second of it
This has been one of the cleverest and most engaging series I've had the pleasure to watch in years. I have a pretty demanding sense of humor, so the fact that this series makes me laugh out loud frequently and has me smiling almost throughout the whole thing is impressive to me. The acting and the cinematography are overall excellent, and the plot is quite original, with lots of witty commentary on the human experience and the strange ways humans organize themselves and act. It also has genuine drama (that is, it doesn't feel artificial or contrived) and many unexpected plot twists that will keep you guessing, and which make this a very engaging watch. Along with Sex Education, it's the only other series I'm looking forward to the next season with bated breath!
To put icing on the cake, the English subtitles are absolutely top notch and convey the seemingly untranslatable jokes from Portuguese into English seamlessly (I watched it in Portuguese with English subtitles on for amusement). Props to the translator(s)!
Please do yourself a favor and give this quirky series a chance! If you're not hooked in by the first episode, then it's probably not for you.
L'uomo senza gravità (2019)
Glacial pace
This is one of those movies that takes its sweet time with a scene way longer than it should. For example, one scene shows the main character's mother taking him to school for the first time. It shows them parking the car, opening the car door, walking down the street to the school entrance, entering it, going down the hall, only for her to stop and decide he's not going to school after all... and then showing them walking down the hallway again, opening the door again, walking back step by step to the car again. What should have taken maybe 15 seconds (enter the school, change mind, exit it) ended up taking a whopping 2 minutes of screen time! Characters also talk really slowly in general. The movie could have been half its length if it had a sensible editor to cut out the fluff.
Every other element of the story, apart from the anti-gravity gimmick, is also clichéd, boring, and ultimately squanders the potential of its interesting premise.
For much better movies that explore the theme of anti-gravity people, try Upside Down (2011) and Patema Inverted.
For a much better movie that explores the theme of a person born with a unique fantastical condition, watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Any of these three films is much more worthy of your time than this slog that doesn't respect the audience's time and patience.
Trinta Lumes (2017)
Pretentious and very slow. Nothing really happens
This is one of those post-modern films that has no real story to speak of and relies mostly on visuals, with long shots (sometimes 30 seconds+) of the same nature scenes where nothing is happening (e.g. several different shots of the camera just staring at a bonfire).
The film begins with the "main character" Alba* going missing and everybody looking for her at night, then goes back in time before she went missing and follows some of her vague thoughts about life in the village and some supposed ghosts that inhabit it.** Outside of these sequences with her thoughts and some character monologues (i.e. a teacher giving a class), the film is mostly silent. It is meant to be a visual experience above all else, displaying quaint rural life.
Let's break down the synopsis, which drew me to this movie with the promise of something deep:
"Thirty Lights is a journey into a world that slowly disappears, seen from the perspective of four girls who inhabit it."
"Slowly disappears" only in the sense that rural life is being replaced by life in big cities. The village is not fading from existence.
"(...) where many magical rituals prevail and where nature stands with a unique force capable of directing the lives of its inhabitants. Its own rhythm, tradition and heritage seek their survival through the transmission of the most intimate and sensible essences."
Pretentious drivel to say that the countryside has a different rhythm and lifestyle.
"'Thirty Lights' glares into the resistance of life against the impending mutation of death, by accompanying these girls into the moment of rite, a time where anything can happen in a world where only the belief in the invisible will capture all its energy and strength."
Sounds awesome when you read it, but nope, outside of a few CGI will-o'-wisps showing up during the long nature shots and end up having no significance, there is nothing supernatural going on.
In conclusion, if you like post-modern art, which pretends or thinks itself to be a lot more than it really is, then sure, give this movie a shot. Otherwise, your time is better spent elsewhere.
* = I put it between quotes because she's only the main character due to getting slightly more screen time than anybody else, not because she has any pertinence to whatever semblance of plot this movie pretends to have. The main character of the movie is actually the village she's in.
** = The only reason I won't spoil the ending, which is very unsatisfying, is because I'd have to mark this review as containing spoilers.