Reviews

I think it's easy to dismiss this as pretentious or lazy because of the lack of edits, music and well developed characters.

However, I think this film is ultimately a challenge. The film doesn't build tension to let you know which character you should want to survive. It doesn't use sad music to tell you which characters deaths you should be sad about. It doesn't have obvious good guys and bad guys. It doesn't have edits that buold emotion.

By ignoring all of these shorthands, the film leaves you on your own, to make your own decisions.

The hollowness of the film really hots you when you finish. It's not that you cry and hate a common enemy (people who shoot schools), but instead the film forces you to take the hard root, challenging the idea that school shooters are evil inherently, whilst also challenging the idea that they are products of their own environment.

Essentially, the film never tells you how to feel, so you have to actually feel it.

Some of the acting wasn't great though.

A sci-fi horror that fully realises it's potential by focussing on the characters and the downward spiral of Jeff Goldblum. Many horror films don't have a strong character focus and are more focussed on tension and scaring the audience, so to have a film that derives it's horror from the audience's empathy towards the characters (especially for a 70s film) is refreshing.

The main characters are played wonderfully with a very believable chemistry, and every part of the story was well thought out and developed.

The start is a little bit slow but not too slow as to lose you completely and the mystery is excellent at the begining.

The body horror is also really disgusting.

I don't think I've seen any other film so accurately show the horror of just existing in the world, and the tension and fear of being in a dangerous city at night. The mysterious fladhbacks are genius and fantastic and the ending is ultimately satisfying. Even the romance (which I feel so many films would be better without) was a great addition.

It annoys me, therefore, that maybe a third of this film is lost to a basic and frankly tired and stereotypical ghosts chasing the main character. AND THEN THEY'RE NOT EVEN EVIL (SPOILERS)? Just really felt the whole ghost bit detracted from the overall story.

I have to start with huge praise to the lighting, art and props departments, who nailed the 70s vibe so completely and thoroughly. I also have to give huge praise to gosling, crowe and rice, who all played their parts fantastically and really sold the story.

In fact on the topic of Angourie Rice, it's worth mentioning that Holly March absolutely steals the show and is a fantastic, loveable character throughout the film.

I really enjoyed the comedy and while this film definitely didn't have some great moral point to prove, it really was funny and watchable to the last.

He's literally so me and I'm him omg.

The action is amazing and the direction and production are unique and unforgettable. The frozen in mid air cameras and the twosting while neo dodges bullets are just two examples of extraordinary bits of production that tell a story even without context.

I was engaged for every second and believed every betrayal and life risking decision from every character. I just didn't believe that neo being "the one" could really explain everything he did, like reviving himself from the dead. The love B-story was also pretty boring and tired, even ignoring the lack of chemistry between the actors who were supposedly in love.

The whole AIs taking over the world and keeping humans captive for energy was a bit ridiculous and I'd rather we never found out why humans were imprisoned by, but as an allegory I think the imprisonment thing works.

From a purely technical standpoint, this is incredible. The moments when you should be disgusted are stomach turning, the tension is built with incredible skill using music, ambient noise and direction and the sets and lighting subtly but perfectly reflect the mood of the scenes.

My only really problem with this film tevhnically is the character sandy (was it sally?) is very two dimensional and the stilted romance between the two is completely unnecessary.

The problem I have in terms of reviewing this is that i really don't know if I enjoyed seeing it. The descent into the criminal underbelly of a picturesque town is shown brilliantly and captures perfectly what David Lynch was trying to show, but it's so didturbing and tense that it ends up being something you don't really want to ever watch again.

I do think this film is brilliant but I also think this review needs to reflect that this isn't fun or light and it's really sick actually in places.

From the very opening scene, this film establishes itself as being incredibly realistic but truly horrific film, and it never loses that tone.

The use of ghostly possession as an allegory for addiction brings a theoretically paranormal premise into the real world, which makes every single beat of this film more terrifying. What really makes this scary, however, is the complete loss of self from the main character (perfectly played by Sophie Wilde) and watching the spiral of her life crashing and burning around her.

Whoever did the makeup deserves a raise for their truly sickening efforts, and whoever did the music deserves a raise for permanently ruining la monde for me forever. The direction and camera work also provide something new and great to this which I don't see in other films.

The ending (no spoilers) is exactly the ending the film needed and deserved and generally this is a sole crushing film.

Finally this depiction of grief is one of the most believable I've ever seen on screen.

I can't blame the problems of this entire film on Hanks, although this really is a shockingly substanceless performance from him. His bug-eyed clueless idiot demeanour and awful accent are only the start of the problems with this.

Firstly, making up a country that gets overthrown is a bold emotional decision would be great if it had any emotional weight and wasn't just used as a plot device.

Secondly the fact that Tom Hanks is not lastingly impacted by either the loss of his country or being endlessly stuck in an airport gives this film a lack of consequences for what happens (classic Tom Hanks film of course we arent allowed emotional stakes).

Thirdly, the decision to have an evil security guy is ridiculous (evin if Tucci has one of the only good performances in the entire film) and allows the film to fall into a predictable "good guy vs bad guy" routine which is incredibly boring.

Fourthly, I neither believe nor like nor care about the romance which is theoretically central to the film.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that John Williams nailed it and even seems to have tricked people into believing this film had emotional weight, so good for him I guess.

That's just about everything that I think about this film so I guess to wrap up I would say to not bother watching, unless you were planning to watch paint dry for two hours.

I don't think there's anything i can say about this masterpiece that someone hasn't already said but i seriously love everything about this. It doesn't shy away from getting real but it equally doesn't dwell on being sad, instead telling a happy quirky love story, that is very interconnected, all being tied together by character development and mysteries that you get to watch unfold in front of you. The directoral style is unique and brings a fantastic quality to the whole thing.

I absolutely adore all the characters but especially the painter and how his artwork connects him to the world and and most importantly Amelie.

I don't think there's anything left to say except WATCH THIS FILM.

Maybe it's just that i don't really watch marvel films but this felt quite a lot like a waste of time to me. None of the characters or relationships had any depth or meaning, character motivations were paper thin and the acting did little to convince you otherwise. The conflict and tension of the film comes from childhood friends who have opposing worldviews, which would theoretically make for an interesting story, except that little is done to convey their friendship and the conflict in worldview is because one of them doesn't care about killing people. This makes the film really boring. The dialogue is so corny and trope-y it feels like many lines were ripped straight from awful b-movies, however, the action isn't awful.