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Fresh (2022)
6/10
Mediocre script saved by great direction
21 March 2022
While the script is pretty bland and uninspired, the film is luckily elevated by a very likable lead, a great antagonist and excellent direction. Every shot is well planned and choreographed, making "Fresh" a very fun movie experience.
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The Empty Man (2020)
7/10
A hidden gem
10 November 2021
The Empty Man is a strange mixture of different elements. The film starts out promising, with a long prologue that raises the mysterious elements of the film.

Aesthetically looking more like a Lifetime movie the plot then unfolds as a more classic investigation story with a by the numbers protagonist - but the story ends up becoming something completely different in it's chilling and clever conclusion.
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Censor (2021)
6/10
A mixed bag
9 November 2021
"Censor" should on paper be a film that I would be instantly in to. Set in the "Video Nasties" time in the UK, it's about the story of a video censor and her descent into madness.

Similar stories have already been told in the likes of Berberian Sound Studio or Evil Ed - and while Censor has some brilliant moments of atmosphere and a haunting ending, the whole thing didn't really fully come together for me in the end.

I think maybe the psychological state of our protagonist was not established enough to fully believe her transition, so it all felt a bit too forced.

But there's still a lot to admire in Prano Bailey-Bond's debut feature, it just wasn't as engaging as I had hoped.
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8/10
Gothic horror deconstructed
9 November 2021
Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes tells the story of a disruptive couple in a '60s gothic setting.

Margot (Luisa Taraz) has inherited a castle, which is visited with her curmudgeonly husband Dieter (played superbly by Frederik von Lüttichau).

The first half skillfully delivers a psychogram of this toxic relationship, amid the surreal castle where space and time seem to have their own rules.

But it is in the second half that the film takes an unexpected new direction - and everything that happened before is reinterpreted once again.

Visually stunning with a great soundtrack and very clever screenplay, this is definitely a film that needs to be watched a second time to fully grasp all the different layers hidden in the story.
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6/10
German Mayhem
9 November 2021
Anarchistic parody of Fassbinder's German film work with some of the actors from the period.

Shattering, nihilistic and in typical Schlingensief manner too much emphasis on provocation.

Nevertheless a film worth seeing!
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Evil Dead (2013)
7/10
Effective Remake
9 November 2021
Evil Dead is certainly one of the most difficult films to remake - especially because the original series is so popular.

Nevertheless, Fede Alvarez has managed to make a worthy reinterpretation. Fortunately, there is no attempt to create a new cult icon like Ash - instead, the focus is on the horror aspect, which is staged extremely effectively!
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5/10
Clash of two Titans
9 November 2021
The extremely promising director Adam Wingard, whose indie gems "You're Next" and "The guest" were quite convincing, was a good example of how a conversion from indie to blockbuster can be somewhat difficult. For Wingard's last two films "Blair Witch" & "Death Note" were unfortunately not that convincing.

His latest film "Godzilla vs Kong" isn't particularly deep or well written either - but basically all the human interactions are just filler for what you actually want to see - the fight between Godzilla & King Kong. And these fight sequences at least work pretty well - but from what Wingard's earlier films made so special is unfortunately not much to recognize, instead the film is the standard blockbuster pattern.

Too bad, but maybe that will change with "Thundercats".
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