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Oppenheimer (2023)
Oppenheimer? I barely know her!
I've been a HUGE Christopher Nolan fan. Every movie he's made, Momento through Interstellar, I've loved. Flawed maybe, but loved them nonetheless. Movies that not only wow'ed me as a technical achievement, but moved me emotionally too. But lately...Nolan's films have taken a different trend. Stories that were once a perfect ratio of spectacle, plot, human drama and fascinating character work, have now been replaced with spectacle & plot-driven pieces devoid of character and heart.
And Nolan's latest 3 hour historical epic, Oppenheimer is no exception. Mostly. Indulge me for a moment:
Oppenheimer was of course competently written & directed, ie it hit all the historical story beats and had consistently great performances...but for me, the human touch was missing. The soul, if you will. To reiterate, It was a massive technical achievement: Great music, great cinematography, really unique tone. But that's mostly all it had to offer for me. And pair that with a grueling 3 hour run time, I have no desire to ever watch it again.
Credit where credit is due, there are some excellent scenes. For instance: (slight spoiler alert, I guess? I mean, this all happened 80 years ago) The moment Oppenheimer gives his 'Victory' speech after the successful Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing. The way they depict his inner turmoil and anxiety attack is beyond excellent. It's unique, it's heart-wrenching, it's beautiful. More of that, please.
Additionally, I definitely loved what the movie had to say, it undoubtedly covered many profound ideas (though it'd be hard not to, due to the film's subject matter). HOWEVER, and this is my biggest critique...for a movie called "Oppenheimer" I never felt like we fully got into the headspace of our titular character. What was his true drive? What made him tick? (To clarify, Cillian Murphy's performance was phenomenal, this is only a dig at the writing).
I think there's a great comparison to be made with The Imitation Game, the Benedict Cumberbatch-led WWII film from 2014). Our main character in that film, Alan Turing, is up against a near-parallel circumstance: a scientist/mathematician is hurled into a military setting he's not familiar with, to invent the world's first computer to decrypt German codes to help win the war before time runs out.
But in The Imitation Game...I actually understand who Alan Turing is, and cared about him on a PERSONAL level. With both Alan Turing and Oppenheimer, I know they're doing what they're doing to WIN THE WAR. That's important. Obviously. But on TOP of that, in Imitation Game, I know what the task at hand means to him PERSONALLY. How he's been second-guessed his whole life, how much of an outcast he is. So if Alan Turing fails to invent the computer, not only do we possibly LOSE the war...but it's a PERSONAL loss. He's failed to prove himself in a world that's rejected him. And despite being a near-parallel storyline with Robert Oppenheimer, I didn't feel for him the way I should feel for a protagonist. And I'm confident all the historical ingredients were there. Just not utilized.
Switching over to the external stakes: there was one core issue for me: Lack of urgency. During most of Oppenheimer's runtime, I nearly forgot WORLD WAR II was actively happening. Now I totally respect Nolan's decision to contain the story's perspective into one, small bubble. HOWEVER, it took away all the context for the WWII milestones that were occurring around the world! Excluding the marbles on the desk (reminding us about the enemy's plutonium supply), a few BREIF lines mentioned in passing, and one newspaper headline that said "HITLER INVADES POLAND", everything the enemy was doing during the war was out of sight, out of mind in this film. And because of this, I did not feel the urgency. I did not feel the stakes. Even though I knew, objectively, there was a TON of urgency, and a TON of stakes.... I didn't *feel* it. And that's the difference between a narrative story, and a history book. The audience shouldn't just logically understand something, they should feel it too.
To play devil's advocate, because this film is a retelling of real historic events, it might not need to hit the audience over the head with those things to the degree I'm arguing for for. Most people are familiar with the events of WWII, so dropping a little blurb every now and then is often more than enough. But for me? Didn't cut it.
Lastly, There were a lot of weird, borderline lazy instances of character intros and drops. The most egregious example being the character Rami Malek played (David Hill). The character was so subtly introduced in the briefest of scenes, then ended up becoming THE GUY who saves Oppenheimer during his final trial. And THEN, no follow up as to why. Maybe that was historically accurate? But unsatisfying and unresolved in the context of a narrative.
All in all, these culminations of problems went up against my overall enjoyment of the film, then exasperated TENFOLD with its 3 hour runtime. Which is why Oppenheimer for me earns an underwhelming 6.9 out of 10.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Still good but the weakest in the series
After going back and rewatching the entire franchise...Chamber of Secrets has remained my least favorite of the 8. Too be fair: it's still decent. Like all the films in this franchise, even in its weaknesses it still has a charm, plus it and lays a lot of solid groundwork for the following films (where most would agree the franchise really picks up). However Chamber of Secrets was at a point in the series where it was stuck in the middle of a tone, not quite committing as a movie for little kids...but also not committing as a movie for adults. Again, they strike that balance MUCH better in the films preceding.
Furthermore, Chamber of Secrets, more than any of Harry Potter movies, played out like a book. In a negative way. Just a lot of tangential filler scenes that could have been cut (of course if you DID cut them then a lot of hard core fans of the book would have been upset, so it's a lose lose).
All in all, the sets are still great, John Williams music is still magical, and it's always fun stepping foot into JK Rowling's Wizarding World of Harry Potter. 6.9/10.
Knock Knock (2015)
Not a bad start! Then OH DEAR GOD TURN IT OFF
The first half hour was honestly pretty decent. And then it took a STEEP AND MASSIVE DECLINE into an INFURIATING TRAINWRECK THAT GENUINELY MADE ME MAD, STRESSED AND OVERALL UNHAPPY FOR THE REST OF THE RUNTIME THEN LONG AFTER.
The initial premise was interesting and had me hooked. And the performance of Keanu Reeves was surprisingly fresh and different than I've come to expect from him in other rolls. Then the second act happens..and dear lord does it become insufferable. No new developments, no new twists or ANY a sort of cathartic release admits the chaos. Just beyond frustrating scenes back to back to back until it just sort of...ends. And to top it off Keanu goes full Nic Cage in his performance in this one and not in the good way, lol. I'm writing this review as a cautionary tale: SKIP THIS ONE. Or watch the first 30 minutes then turn it off.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
A great film that ALMOST sticks the landing
Everything Everywhere All at Once is a film I really really liked but wanted to love. Don't get me wrong, there are so many aspects that I did LOVE. The comedy. The visuals. The performances. The stellar fight choreography. The bonkers physical gags. ALL INCREDIBLE. The Daniels definitely have a beautiful, unique style of directing. Every frame is filled with visual intention and style.
But I will say, I really wanted to get hit with an emotional punch, and that department fell slightly flatter than I would have wanted. As a general rule I liked where they took the story, and they had lot of beautiful things to say. But for me...I did feel like they half committed to about 5 different themes.
So to be fair, this movie is SUPPOSED to be about "everything". But as far as packing a punch from a narrative perspective it felt a little too split.
From what I recall these are the themes/overarching topics I picked out:
The first: Evelyn rekindling the relationship with her husband. She learns she has not been present for him as a wife, and has not appreciated him for the sweet, patient man he is.
Then the next theme, and most prevalent: Evelyn's relationship with her daughter. She learns she has failed to accept her for who she is and hasn't been communicating how much she loves her.
Now the third theme: Standing up for what you believe in. Don't let your life pass by, get out there and be the best you you can be.
Ok now the FOURTH theme (which I think they just included to cover their bases), was "kindness". Live life with kindness in your heart and treat others the way you want to be treated.
The FIFTH theme, learn to let go of the ones you love. Except also don't let go, if you really love them, hold them tight and never let go? I think?
And then theme 5.5, the importance of standing against older, more traditional generations (specifically in regards to homosexuality).
So I love ALL of those themes, they're beautiful, and in most moments fairly competent. But they all felt very half-developed in an unintentional way. To me it felt like our protagonist experienced 5-6 different half arcs. All of them were good, I just felt like the movie could have had me in tears if they had fully committed to just one (maybe two) of them.
Lastly, from a pacing perspective, the last Act felt like it should have been a bit tighter. The "final climax" of the film (which is generally 5-8 minutes) lasted for a whopping 30 minutes. Emotional montages are great and impactful, but the longer it plays out the more it loses its potency.
In conclusion, this movie is still pretty great. I don't want to sound like I'm being TOO harsh on it, I was just so ready to absolutely LOVE this movie. Instead I just really really liked it. 7.8/10.
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
An overall underwhelming sequel
I was a moderate fan of the first film, and was rather excited to see it's sequel. However Wonder Woman 1984 to me was a very underwhelming movie. By no means did I hate it, in fact there are many things to like in this film. A lot of characters are well developed and are acted brilliantly, specifically Pedro Pascal and Kristen Wiig. Gal Gadot & Chris Pine's chemistry and character moments in this film are a delight and handled with love. There's also some really fun action moments, and some great fan service to the Wonder Woman fans out there. Unfortunately, there was also quite a lot of bad too. So much so that this movie is very hard for me to recommend it to anyone outside the avid Wonder Woman fanbase.
I think this movie's central flaw revolved around the idea of "big" payoffs with seemingly no "set-ups".
The biggest example of this being the "amazing" Golden Wonder-Woman armor she dons in the climatic 3rd act. It's a beautiful costume design, and was much hyped in the trailers, posters, and merchandise. And yet, the movie seemingly forgot to establish any importance to it before busting it out in the climax.
The film set up it's existence LITERALLY with Diana awkwardly having it already (in her house somewhere) and Steve going: "Hey, what's this?" (paraphrasing here).
Diana: Oh its this super cool armor an old Amazon warrior chick used to wear".
Steve: Oh cool".
*Movie proceeds*
Then in the climax the MUSIC SWELLS, and we get an EPIC SHOT of Wonder-Woman FINALLY wearing that armor, YAY!!!
...Except...not yay. Wonder-Woman overcame nothing to reach this point, she had no obstacle (mental or physical) in the way of her wearing that armor. For instance -bad pitch version-, when Chris Pine asks about the armor, she could say something about her childhood hero that she looked up to as a little girl used to wear that and Diana feels unworthy to wear the outfit herself, feeling insecure about who she is as a person, self-doubt, etc. And then maybe in the third act she realizes her own confidence and dons the armor, embracing who she is and what she stands for.
OR ANYTHING, not: "oh hey this armor exists. Then "Ok Imma wear it now" as the movie makes big deal about it.
And to top it all off, this "super powerful" important armor is worn for around 4 minutes of screen time before being ripped off seemingly VERY EASILY by our Cheetah villain.
This same principal of a false payoff can be showcased in the "Wonder Woman learns to fly" moment in the turning point from acts 2 to 3.
In this scene we watch our title hero piece together how to use her powers to fly, in a very long, dragged out sequence with a HUGE sweeping score.
And yet...was Wonder Woman not being able to fly something that had been on our minds for a SINGLE moment in the entire movie? Was she struggling to learn how to fly in other scenes, but finally learned to just trust her instincts? NO. Was she trapped in her headspace with self-doubt, unable to embrace her full potential until now?...No. Nothing. Again, a big "payoff" with no sort of set up.
And the icing on the cake was the really bad green screen in that scene, but I'd be much more inclined to ignore that if the story was serving it's purpose there, which it was not.
All in all, I could divs into each moment and specific scene semantics, but I'm more discussing how the story elements were broken, thus making all these moments the internet has been complaining about fall very flat.
In the end Wonder-Woman manages to tie up their loose ends, and deliver a semi-climactic ending...but after its almost 3 hour run time full of many weak sequences...it fails to get a recommendation from me.
Tenet (2020)
Great if you love plot/spectacle driven films
I really enjoyed the movie. But I will say it was almost 100% spectacle/plot driven. Fortunately for me I loved the spectacle and plot the movie had to offer, so it didn't bother me much. However all the people out there who didn't enjoy because it was void of true character and an emotional theme...it's hard to argue with them.
I still enjoyed it A LOT. But when you compare it to Nolan's Inception, which has killer spectacle, plot AND character...there's no contest.
Rogue One (2016)
A Succulent thrill ride of Cinematic Masterpiece
Rogue One: 9/10
Rogue One consisted of basically the highest cinematography the industry has to offer. With Arguably some of the best visual effects I've ever seen, and breathtaking action sequences, Rogue One: A Star Wars story was pretty dang solid in my opinion.
I thought it had a compelling story that managed to keep me engaged the entire time, regardless of the fact that everyone knew the ending since 1977.
I also appreciated that it was darker tale in the star wars universe, making this movie a fresh telling of a story in the beloved familiar world. Thanks to George Lucas and his design crew; Star Wars is arguably one of the best, and largest universes of design. From its droids, technology, ships, etc, Star Wars is a brilliant and unique constructed reality. I thought Rogue one showcased that beautifully and dove deep into the brilliance of its unique world, without relying on it to carry the story.
The variety in the character assemble was strong, with a enjoyable amount of comedy and chemistry overall. With my biggest praise going to the driod character 2-KSO as well. WHAT A GOOD CHARACTER. That being said, main protagonist Jyn could have been a little stronger in my opinion, as to develop more intrigue for her as a character. She was still a good, strong independent character, just
perhaps not as dynamic as I was hoping.
Not every story can be about the mighty power of Jedi and siths. Sometimes it takes a story about the smaller, more personal group of characters to make an intriguing story, and that is how Rogue One succeeded. Without being about to rely on the classic lightsaber duels and force using action sequences, I thought Rogue One created intrigue through its stylistic warfare sequences and immersion into the scenic design of the Star Wars universe.
Something unique Rogue One executed was bringing back to life 1977 Carrie Fischer, and Moff Tarkin, completely with CGI. Instead of skipping over Admiral Tarkin's storyline, because of Peter Cushing's death, they decided to harness of the power of 2016's technology. Personally I thought this was wonderful. It makes sense that they would spend time on Tarkin's character considering the timeline of this movie's story, and they went for it, regardless of no longer having Peter Cushing. My opinion on the CGI is pretty high. For the most part I was blown away by how good it looks. Princess Leia on the other hand
.didn't look right to me. The CGI on her struck me as a little bit off. Ironically though, as I was discussing the CGI with the friends I went to the movie with, they had literal opposite impressions. As both me and my brother thought Tarkin looks great and Leia looks mediocre, my two friends thought Tarkin looked Mediocre, and *Leia* looked great. So I suppose that proves something. Wither way, I think CGI has reached a pretty high point in Cinema history, to where I am glad they could harness those tools effectively to tell a good story by including these characters.
Let's talk about Darth Vader for a moment; possibly everyone's favorite moments in the movie. He was great. Its funny, because in the first main scene featuring Darth Vader, he engages in a semi- lengthy conversation with Orson Kendrick, and as this scene progressed I realized, this is the most we've ever heard Darth Vader talk! Most of his dialogue before consisted of brief sentences and one liners. So to hear Vader speak for an extended period of time actually expanded our viewpoint of him as a character. In that scene we see him being a little sassy, even using sarcasm, and ending he conversation with a pun! WOW. And of course the most epic scene with Darth Vader taking on Rebel troops like a badass; now that was something. In the original movies, we were used to him being a lot slower in his fighting, due to pace of the scenes & likely some of the technical limitations of that time. But in Rogue One, we finally get to see Vader show off the fierce, Sith lord bad ass he really is.
Overall I loved this movie. Gareth Edwards did a phenomenal job, and I can't wait to go see this movie many more times.
Misdirection: The Horror Comedy (2016)
Exquisite Journey of Cinematic Mastery
Misdirection is a real tour de force. It is the most hilarious short horror film to be released this week that I have seen. This is the you-can't-miss-seeing gorefest for the coming Halloween season. That will unfortunately not be seen this Halloween as it has no set release dates in October that have been announced, so you'll miss it. The acting is right on par with other great horror film acting performances. Like Jennifer Aniston in Leprechaun, or those people who were in Thankskilling. But the actors are all definitely a step above any performance in Anklebiters. Everyone in the cast delivered their lines with...something that sounds good like they knew what they were doing. It was amazing the depth of emotion delivered in every condescending line aimed at Amy. The direction was clearly superb. It is without doubt that the actors nailed every take the second time after the young director corrected them on everything (literally) they did wrong in the first take of each shot. Finally, while the cinematography was outstanding, there was one blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot that really stood out above all others. During the opening credits, as the coffee drinks are being handed across the counter, the camera operator really nailed it. The angle of the shot and crispness of details was expertly handled. Make sure you don't miss it. All in all, Misdirection is a solid 5 out of 5 stars, must see movie event. Would definitely go see it again! - John Baker
Hungry for a Sale (2015)
A succulent thrill ride of Cinematic gold
"Hungry for a Sale" is a film that can be considered a modern classic. Upon watching it for the first time I realized that all other short films are nothing in comparison. Not only is it brilliantly shot and lit, but the story itself is overwhelmingly entertaining. With its ironic twists and witty humor, "Hungry for a Sale" is a beautiful example of what a group of High Schoolers can achieve with a few dreams, conviction, and a camera. (P.S. I was particularly fond of how organized the film felt, clearly they had an amazing Slate Operator on set, most likely named Marta Myers).
- Caden Butera