The mark is missed but it's watchable just for the portrayal of Dr. Manhattan, which is superb. Rorschach and The Comedian are also good.
Reviews
78 Reviews
The Pianist
(2002)
Harrowing and Realistic
26 March 2020
I feel like I would've liked this more if I'd never seen a WWII movie or didn't understand before going into how horrible the period was for those involved. I did like it but I think I could've liked it more. It does a fantastic job of portraying how horrid the main character and other's descent into destitution was. It doesn't pull any punches. It treats the audience with respect. Brody's performance is great, mostly because of how much he is able to change throughout the film. I liked how (comparatively) lucky Brody's character kept getting throughout the movie because I thought it served as a commentary on how nearly-impossible it was for someone to survive in his shoes. I did feel as thought the film, as a whole, was missing something though I don't know how to say it without calling it boring, which it wasn't.
The Lighthouse
(I) (2019)
Uncompromising
26 March 2020
I applaud this film for its willingness to do something different. I give it credit for being uncompromising in its vision of itself. The unexpectedness of the film builds upon itself until the viewer is lulled into a sense of absurdity. The acting is pretty good but the accents to could've used work especially Pattinson's, in my opinion. The world needs more of these.
Jojo Rabbit
(2019)
Different but great
26 March 2020
An entertaining and comedic take on the absurdity of war and in particular the end of the second World War. I can imagine, in today's environment, how a lot of people felt watching Hitler make jokes but I thought that and other things that I'd guess people took offense to were in-line with the message of the film. The world needs more films that are willing to take risks.
Parasite
(2019)
"It's so metaphorical"
10 February 2020
A good movie with no jarring flaws. The only trouble I have with it is that it could've been better. I'm guessing a lot of the film's subtlety is lost in translation because I wasn't overly impressed by all of the metaphors. I feel like I got a firm grasp of everything that went on and what it meant while I was watching and it hasn't left much of a lasting impression on me. I could be failing to see things but I wish it was a bit more dense. I kind of think the movie is a little overrated and think that some people like it so they can say they like foreign films.
Seven Samurai
(1954)
A Classic Eroded by Time
27 January 2020
It's tough to rate these types of movies, in my opinion. The influence is clear, there's no argument from me on that. But, the actual film doesn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. It is an action movie. I'm sure that meant something much different when it was released than it does now. Action movies have since worked off of the same tropes movies like Seven Samurai invented and as a result often come off as stale. It's not through any fault of its own but the film is lacking and its because the genre and the narrative style has been beaten into the ground since it's release. There have just been thousands of movies about gathering a crew to fight against impossible odds.
Another Quirky Wes Anderson Film
27 January 2020
This is an entertaining, silly movie. There isn't anything remarkable about it other than it being another step in the building of Wes Anderson's aesthetic. It's a step forward in terms of the quirkiness of the director's style. It is a wholly unique film if you discount Anderson's work after it.
The Irishman
(2019)
Just Fine
27 January 2020
The actors ages were a little hard to get over for me but I still enjoyed the film. The narrative is interesting but, along with the whole movie, clearly catered to an older crowd. I don't really see anything that makes this film stick out over others in Scorsese's oeuvre. Pacino's performance as Jimmy Hoffa was the most notable aspect of the film.
Free Solo
(2018)
Basic but Thrilling
7 January 2020
This is an engaging look into the life of a daredevil with a few screws lose. You can tell that it's honest because it doesn't really pull out any stops to make the climber seem likable. In fact, I found the opposite to be true. The film keeps you entertained and on the edge of your seat for the most part of the viewing experience. It's a traditional documentary but it's interesting and entertaining.
American History X
(1998)
It's All Ridiculous
19 November 2019
This movie is seriously flawed. Like everything about it is flawed. The slow motion is dreadful, the flashback scenes are almost always terrible and the message is ridiculous. A few specific awful pieces of the film include the fact that Danny has a single night to write this paper and does so with the eloquence of F. Scott Fitzgerald, the entire basketball game scene and how much blood Danny has in his body. But the worst part of the movie is definitely the idea that Derek needed to meet a nice black person in order for him to change his views. I get it has to do with him being sheltered and closed-minded but it doesn't make sense and gives the viewer a horrible idea of how racial differences can be solved. The film tries to push an agenda on the audience so hard and, at least in my eyes, falls flat on its face with its most important message. It's a major problem when a character's white supremacy rhetoric makes more sense than his reason for being reformed. There are countless cliches and more moments of bad acting. I don't think Norton did anything special and nobody else was good.
The Souvenir
(2019)
Decent Story, Bad Characters
19 November 2019
Even though I find the main character to be an unbelievably sheltered and dim witted person, the film does a decent job of portraying a realistic struggle for her. All of the other characters are pretentious asses but the story is alright. The way that people in the film reacts to the situations their presented in are good given their pre established unnatural sensibilities but the characters are still unbelievable and unlikable. I would've preferred more subtlety. Other than that, the film looks nice. The director does a nice job of framing a lot of the film.
Unnecessary
19 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
El Camino is a boring money-grab. There isn't anything that happens in the movie that fans of Breaking Bad had to see. The story is a continuation of the series in spirit only. Other than the characters, nothing is the same. Nothing that made the show great appears in the movie. I never thought I'd see the day that Jesse Pinkman gets plot armor. There is never any doubt that there will be a happy ending. It's a cookie-cutter redemption story.
Leviathan
(I) (2012)
The Velvet Underground vs. The Beatles
18 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Leviathan is a different take on the nature documentary. It is one of the few documentaries that is actually able to capture the essence of its subject. Using strategically gathered footage, the film gives the viewer an intense look at what it's like to be involved with commercial fishing. It's not sensationalized like Deadliest Catch, it's real. All of it. The long uncut shots are what make the film which is trite to say but it's true. There aren't other documentaries that do what this one does. A comparison that occured to me is that this is The Velvet Underground to Planet Earth's The Beatles. That's nothing against either of them, they're both two of my favorite bands ever. I liked how the fish were credited.
Don't Look Back
(1967)
Don't Think Twice, Watch This
7 November 2019
This is a look at one of the greatest minds in modern music during his most prodigious period. It does a great job of capturing the character of Dylan and placing it within the context of the events happening in the film. It's fascinating hearing him ask about electric instruments and talk about folk music when we know, in hindsight, that his shift from folk to rock would be one the most important artistic shifts in music history. The footage gathered and the way it's presented are good for allowing the subject to be seen as it is but I think a little more direction could've been used at times. That being said, I appreciated the honesty that the film treated Dylan with. We don't see him as anything close to perfect. He's not as wordy as you'd think, his logic isn't always sound and he's rude to the point of meanness but the viewer is still witness to his genius. This is a must-watch for any fan of music.
Joker
(I) (2019)
The Joker Doesn't Need to be an Anti-Hero
7 November 2019
There wasn't really anything that made me believe that Phoenix was the Joker other than his makeup and laugh. He's the proto-Joker, I guess, but still I don't see much of a resemblance. I'm not a fan of the comics and I don't know all of the lore behind the Joker but this take on the character seems to me like an attempt at making something as serious and gritty as The Dark Knight without the success. There isn't much complexity to a character and story that warrants complexity. The motivations of most characters don't make sense and the Joker just becomes cool out of nowhere towards the end of the movie.
A Modern, Revisionist, Western Fairy Tale
9 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
As far as I'm (and I'm sure many others are) concerned, this is a two part movie. Both are quintessentially Tarantino. The first part of the film is filled with nostalgia and entertainment. It is an almost two hour love affair with the imperfect Hollywood of the 1960s and more specifically the part of Hollywood concerned with Westerns. It is no secret that Tarantino sees the Western genre as hugely influential to himself and it seems as though he is trying to pay homage to it and the culture around the genre's production for the majority of the film. There are multiple extended scenes devoted entirely to fictitious movie scenes that do little more than give DiCaprio's character more depth. This marks the third film in a row from Tarantino that is heavily concerned with the Western genre and his second consecutive, in my opinion, to have pacing problems.
I enjoyed the drastic turn that the narrative took very much. I thought it was clever and a quality display of a classic Tarantino ending. The film switches to its second part at the distinct moment where the narrative of the past and the narrative of Rick Dalton meet. From here one out, almost all historicity is thrown out in favor a sort of retribution for the fact the American psyche has been so corrupted by the events that actually took place. The idea that I think he was trying to get at was that this was his version of a fairy tale. The film didn't feel like a typical Tarantino movie until the end and I feel as though this idea has something to do with that as is evidenced by the "Once upon a time" in the title.
I didn't dislike the first part of the movie but after watching the rest of the film it's hard for me not to have any problems with it. It doesn't feel like much of it matters in the grand scheme of the whole movie even though it takes up most of it. There were also a few characters who I felt were detrimental to the film; namely Bruce Lee and the little girl, Trudi. That's nothing against the actors (you're welcome, Trudi) that portrayed them. I just don't think their characters (among a couple others) were written well.
Climax
(I) (2018)
It's Not That Deep
26 August 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The idea of Climax is an interesting one. It follows the same structure as a found-footage film if the found footage was shot professionally with a full crew. The events in the film follow a narrative but they are not leading towards anything. It's simply a progression of what might happen next in relation to preceding events. The film's problems come not from this unconventional style of storytelling but from the "story" itself. Nothing in the film matters any more than anything else. The film keeps the viewers interested through shock-value more than anything else which, to me, comes off as cheap. There's not much to enjoy during the movie since it's mostly unpleasant. I think I understand that it's trying to forego the need for anything other than a climax but other than the atypical structure and some of the displeasing scenes, this film isn't memorable for much.
Jackie Brown
(1997)
Character-Driven Tarantino
12 August 2019
In many ways this film is typical but also atypical Tarantino. Nothing in the film is anything outside the realm of possibility for pre-Jackie Brown Tarantino but it's much different than his previous work. For one, the narrative is mostly linear or at least relatively linear. This compounded with the fact that the plot isn't as dense as his other work makes for a much easier story to follow. Some of the details do become a bit muddled but it isn't a serious problem. The film is defined by its characters moreso than its plot. The characters make the movie more engaging than the plot does, in my opinion. The characters are great. They're entertaining but it's not quite enough to carry the film up to the quality of its predecessors, for me.
North by Northwest
(1959)
The Blueprint
12 August 2019
In terms of influence, there are few that can be looked at as more important to film than North by Northwest. The way that the narratives plays out and reveals information to the viewer has been copied thousands of times since its release. The creative writing is the reason that the film has survived and is viewed the way it is now. The visuals are far superior to most of its contemporaries but it isn't enough to blow the viewer away like in Vertigo, for example, and the acting leaves something to be desired. However, the film is certainly one of the most influential works of art since the inception of cinema.
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