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Reviews
Humane (2024)
Fumbled Twilight Episode
I went into this movie knowing little about it. And I enjoyed learning about the premise: The government is paying people to be euthanised, apparently for environmental crisis reasons.
After the first death, I got the movie pegged. It's like a OG Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode in which five characters are trapped in a single setting and must find their way out. Used many times.
The setup was decent, although the performances varied in quality. Poor writing is the fundamental reason this film turned into a big nothing.
After an interesting beginning, it all just fumbles along until the ending. Incoherent motivations, massive sibling rivalry, stupid violence that made very little sense, wooden dialogue and murky cinematography that is currently popular (and used to poor effect.)
I'd give it a miss, frankly.
Born to Be Bad (1950)
An empty thriller with some great performances
I wanted to like this movie a lot, but as it played out I found myself getting increasingly bored.
There are some great performances to watch. Mel Ferrer, Zachary Scott, Joan Leslie and Robert Ryan all bring their fire to the screen.
Savvy readers will note I have excluded Joan Fontaine here. I can't tell the degree to which her one-note performance is the actresses's fault, or the screenwriter's tepid dialogue, or Howard Hughes meddling with the film.
But Joan comes off as too old to appear so innocent, and her winsome graciousness mixed with childish enthusiasm lost its lustre for me fairly quickly. And that's why this film seems to be empty at its centre. I wanted to see Joan be more consciously and purposefully "bad." Her villainy felt too easily won and her comeuppance at the end was a plot point rather than an emotional victory.