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Reviews
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Two great actors and two car crashes
In the plus side, important amatory and brilliant acting from DeNiro and Gladstone, especially the latter who was mesmerising.
The film was fundamentally let down by not being capable of delivering the central premise - that DiCaprio's character was thicker than pig excrement. The actor, editor and director bare responsibility.
After 3hrs 29m they were so far from telling the whole story that they introduced a rather ill-judged reenactment of a 1950s theatre 'show' to tell the rest in a toe-curling fashion - including a white man talking in an indigenous American accent, which almost finished me of, before Scorsese's cameo did!
Close (2022)
Emotional manipulation at its worst
He longer time passes the more I dislike this movie, the more I realise how disingenuous the filmmakers were - especially as they claimed in a Q&A that there was no gay subtext to Leo and Remi's relationship. The performances of the two leads and Remi's mum were excellent and the first third of the film showing a beautiful, intimate (and fully accepted by both families) friendship was beautiful. The film characterised Leo as the gay one (we know the No 1 clue is the way gay boys look into other boys eyes hand they imbued him with it from the beginning whilst later choosing to portray him as not gay, or at least homophobic) You see this is where it all unravels. Remi wouldn't take his own life if his feelings weren't more than friendship and why did Leo reject him? There wasn't a sexual denouement and was wanting to fit in enough to abandon his friend - even in private out of school? It made no sense and neither would homophobia in their liberal families. Even if one party was not in enough possession of the facts, it wouldn't have taken long for Leo, the parents, school, other pupils to piece it all together. In fact they showed Leo already knowing what had happened perhaps not able to fully accept it was because of him and that was why he already knew. But instead we got a whole third of a film of drama to create a realisation and redemption of sorts. This wasn't the 1970's and it totally lacked realism, and was instead filled with lazy emotional manipulations and trite symbolism. So much better would have been to fast track the last hour into 5 minutes (because that's pretty much how long it would take to work it out) and the have a genuine exploration of how this happened and what it meant to Leo for he was the main protagonist in the whole scenario second only to Remi who was the one who took his own life. What are we left with? The problem with this filmmaking is that it sets out wanting to explore something but then loses its nerve so we end up with a child suicide that isn't really to do with being gay, it's just misplaced homophobia into a poor kid who had no choice but to metaphorically throw his soul mate under a bus (and this is the bit that gets my goat- EVEN WHEN NOT AT SCHOOL) It's desperation to appeal to the mainstream has ended up with everybody losing out. You do need tissues because it's a crying shame. I saw on the app "Movies like this: Moonlight" everything it is like Moonlight it tries to deny and doesn't deserve to mentioned in the same hour never mind the same breath. Moonlight is a mountain and this is a sand pit.
Postcards from London (2018)
Signpost for the career of Harris Dickinson
The film will not get widespread acclaim as it is a classic, non-classic, arty film in the same way that Betty Blue, Withnail & I, Donnie Darko, Jonny Suede and Cool World were.
It's a showcase for the undoubted talents of Harris Dickinson, a man who exudes charm and emotion - also in real life, which will get him far in a transition from indie to mainstream.
Keep an eye out for him.