Log: week 45 / 2024
Based on a true story, this one. It's another tale about companies being companies, sacrificing human lives for profit. Meryl Streep plays a brave woman standing up to the system, even when her home situation is anything but ideal and her coworkers aren't too happy with her plans. It's Hollywood drama at its most basic. The presentation is bland, this film is all about the message, the narrative, and the characters. A motivational tale that has no impact whatsoever, stretching itself to 120 minutes. I would've preferred a documentary about this story because in this form it didn't interest me at all.Read all
A run-of-the-mill manga/anime adaptation. Netflix has done quite a few of those and with Kubo in the director chair you know something decent will come out of it, but it's little more than an amusing blockbuster romp. And the finale is quite the letdown, especially for those expecting to be done with the film once the credits start rolling. The performances are decent enough, the story is nice but a little generic. I was a bit disappointed by some of the action scenes (the fight on the sled is rather drab) and I doubt if I'll remember much when the sequel finally arrives, but if you have some time to waste and you don't mind a blockbuster adventure, this is a safe bet.Read all
A rather typical spy flick. No doubt this was meant to become a franchise, you can feel how it has a similar setup to Bond, with this first one being a film to gauge the public's interest. it's not a bad flick if you like spy movies with lots of over-the-top action, but The Gray Man doesn't do enough to make itself memorable. Gosling is well cast, the rest of the cast is fun too (with a surprisingly dark part for Evans). The plot is silly, but it's just an excuse to visit a new country every 20 minutes or so. The action scenes are solid even though none of them push the limits. I had fun with it I guess, but it's not a film that will linger. Simple (yet expensive) entertainment.Read all
A simple buddy cop movie, with a minor Japanese twist. No Chinatown this time around, instead we're getting a crime syndicate controlling Little Tokyo. Cue some cheesy samurai stories and a villain who acts tough but is no real match for our all-American vigilante cop (played by Dolph Lundgren). There are some half-decent action scenes, but it's not enough to turn this into a good movie. The setup is bland, the performances are terrible and even though the film is quite short it still feels like there's too much padding. Fans of 80s action cinema might find something here, and it's not the worst of its kind, but great cinema this is not.Read all
The Substance for the tweens. No doubt this is based on a young adult novel (it's certainly set up like those franchises, as it ends with a big old cliffhanger). It's a shallow sci-fi with a dumb premise and lazy morality, but big-budget sci-fi is quite rare and the decent pacing made it somewhat watchable. The "perfect" world looks like hell on Earth, the twists are predictable and the performances are flat. I also kind of hope this flops because I don't need to see more of this universe, and I generally expect more from McG. Still, if you like sci-fi and are fed up with all the near-future variations, there's some mild 'fun to be had.Read all
The renewed interest in the 90s comes with a few upsides. One of them is that some forgotten films are finding their way into the spotlight again. Case in point: Hiroki's Forever with You. For a completist like myself, it's nice to finally plug some important gaps in Hiroki's oeuvre. This is another one of his works smoothing over the gap between his early pinku films and the (edgy) millennium dramas that cemented his reputation. The pinku structure is still present and feels a little limiting, but Hiroki is already working hard to break free from it and deliver something with a bit more flair and depth. A decent film, but little more than a stepping stone to some of his later gems.Read all
It's easy to cite a handful of references after having watched Fargeat's latest, but none of these will capture the true spirit of this film. Fargeat tackles a socially relevant topic and there's enough substance for a healthy discussion afterward, but it's the maximalist genre eruptions throughout that made me absolutely giddy with joy. It's rare to see a film like this in cinemas and anyone who ever complained about there being nothing original to watch better go out and support this film. The best thing I've seen this year, and I doubt it's going to be topped.
A slight step up from the first film, though I'm still not 100% sold on the inclusion of fantasy elements. I feel the sci-fi angle is by far the most interesting part of Code 8, the superhero antics only distract from that. But this more condensed and tense take on the subject turned out to be pretty decent entertainment. The performances are still pretty iffy, but I get that it would've been tricky to recast the whole thing. And the direction still appears a bit flat, a stronger signature would've been nice. But the effects are top-notch, the story is pleasantly paced and there are some fun sci-fi ideas on display. Not a bad film.Read all
Curtis' documentary is ambitious. He tackles about 40 years of Western history to try and come up with a sane answer to how we ended up in this post-truth era. The way he jumps between topics can be a little jarring, but the individual sections are interesting enough, with the more tech-related issues being the most interesting for me. The narrative of this docu does feel a bit too convenient and I think a bit more focus wouldn't have hurt, though I do appreciate the helicopter view that is often missing in other/similar docs. If you're interested in how a world of people can be manipulated into not caring about facts and truth, it's an easy recommendation. Especially now that we're 8 years later and things only seem to have gotten worse.Read all
Probably Greg Araki's most lauded film, and it's not difficult to see why. Araki tackles a sensitive subject head-on, never side-stepping any tricky scenes, yet he still manages to keep things classy. Mysterious Skin is a more than solid film, but somehow it didn't quite click like it did the first time. The performances are excellent, the score is cool and the setup of the film is perfect. The cinematography felt a little too drab and plain though, and I did feel some pacing issues throughout. But that doesn't cancel out the impressive moments. It's definitely a film worth watching, it's just not a personal favorite anymore.Read all
A classic black-and-white Western with a little noir mixed in. These are two of my least favorite genres, so it wasn't too surprising that this film did extremely little for me. The somewhat grim and dreary take on the Western genre just made things worse, making this a right ordeal to sit through. The performances are stilted, the dialogues feel endless, the cinematography is unbearably dull and the characters are completely unappealing. There were no redeeming qualities, just endless drabness that spread itself very thin. This is one of the worst Westerns I've seen so far, but that's coming from a non-fan.Read all
Fukuda tackles two fairytales of the brothers Grimm and reconstructs them into a comical murder mystery. I'm not sure what exactly it is that triggered Fukuda to do so, but the result is pretty amusing, if a little safe and gentle. I prefer it when Fukuda gets a little crazier than he does here. The presentation is decent but it's weird seeing Japanese actors inhabiting the Grimm universe. The comedy isn't very edgy, the plot doesn't have much to offer, and there's a lack of urgency, but the setup of the film is solid enough to pull the audience through 105 minutes of unabashed entertainment.Read all