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Mother! (2017)
Pretentious, over the top, unintentionally funny
Yes yes, I got it. Aronofsky wants to shock me, but he only annoys and bores and somehow amuses me with this film. It's all so hysterically over the top that it's unintentionally funny. And basically the film reminded me a lot of Monty Python's "Life of Brian".
Crowd: "He's the Messiah! He's the Messiah!"
Mother: "He's not! Now, piss off!"
And it's all so infinitely predictable. The narrative path that Aronofsky chooses can only end in one way. But on the way to that ending, the director lost all control of scenery, balance, mood and suspense. It's really sad, but after "Black Swan" couldn't convince me anymore, Aronofsky delivers the next pretentious pseudo-shocker. If that's the way he wants to make films in the future, then let him do it, but count me out. Too bad.
By the way, after seeing such films one often thinks, "at least the actors were good, it really wasn't their fault". But Lawrence, and especially Bardem, were nominated for the Razzie for good reason. Lawrence slips from suspenseful into overacting. Bardem comes across as wooden and somehow retarded. I don't understand all this.
Formula 1: Drive to Survive (2019)
Three season F1 commercial
The series itself is well crafted. Camera, sound and editing on a high level. And it's fun to stick with it up to a certain point as some of the drivers and team bosses are really interesting characters that spectators like to follow. Above all Günther Steiner from the Haas team.
However, it is more than obvious what Formula 1 is aiming for with this series. They want to make the racing series more interesting than it actually is. The wide range of spectators is only interested in the fight for first place to be honest and it has not been exciting for years. So you have to stage the battle of the teams in midfield, which is basically also exciting, but for years can only really captivate the die hard motorsport fans. As someone who hasn't seen a full race in 20 years, I've just enough after three seasons.
The first two seasons were quite entertaining, but season three basically illustrates the monotony that prevails in professional sports apart from the actual competition. It's about money, advertising contracts and autocratic men with oversized egos who have little contact with the real world.
(And this Will Buxton guy really is the most unnecessary Cpt. Obvious of all the sports experts I know. He really has nothing of value to add, just explains the obvious, as if Netflix believes that viewers are complete idiots.)
So basically a three-season long advertisement for a self-satisfied business that never even dares to question itself. There is no differentiated representation of the current status of Formula 1. For example, whether it is still appropriate to burn so much fuel, fly around the world with thousands of people week after week, the amount of money that is wasted, etc.
I don't regret seeing it. But Netflix could have been braver and created a documentary instead of a PR product.
Ford v Ferrari (2019)
Could have been
That could have been THE perfect racing film of its time, but the all-American father-son pathos and the clichéd portrayal of the Italians in this unfortunately screws it up a bit for me. Still a pretty good movie overall.
American Crime Story (2016)
great first, average second season
As much as I was thrilled by the first season, the second disappointed me so much. the OJ season had everything it takes for a good narration: from an interesting story spanning multiple levels of action to an ensemble of actors working together.
the Versace season, on the other hand, is as good as told after the second episode. the consistent narration of the murderer's story from the end to the beginning simply leads to the fact that we already know everything essential and only get it in detail again and again, episode after episode. all other characters of the season remain marginal figures. they should have name it "the assassin of Gianni Versace" not "the assassination...".