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An error has ocurred. Please try againList made as of 16/03/2017, may change depending on what new films come out.
Reviews
The Nightingale (2018)
WHAT THE **** HAPPENED HERE...?
The Nightingale was not a good film. I wanted to like this film... I really did... female Australian director, previously made the Babadook, has a lot of indigenous actors... there's a lot of promise for a great film, and for the first 15 to 20 minutes, I was fairly on board... then the movie just turns to absolute crap... oh yeah spoilers ahead, cause I can't really get into why this film is bad without spoiling parts of it.
First off, the sound design is awful. Every time a character talks loudly or yells, you can literally hear their audio clipping... Yes the film was mostly shot outdoors and there's no musical score, so doing sound design with these constraints in mind is very bold... but it was pulled off really badly...
The directing of the action scenes was really bad too... a lot of generic quick cuts so none of the blows feel like blows at all...
The editing was absolutely atrocious and was probably the big thing that ruined this film for me... there are so many potentially powerful scenes in the movie that just get COMPLETELY RUINED by the constant cutting to different angles and perspectives.. and the editing is also responsible for a lot of unanswered plot points / plot holes too... like was this cut trying to imply passage of time? Or did you forget that our actors were being chased just a moment ago, but now thanks to this edit, they're fine..? There are so many scenes that are left completely unanswered and just get ruined with these sudden cuts.
The acting was all over the shop, Aisling Franciosi and Sam Claflin were great, Baykali Ganambarr was good... until he had to cry... then it was hilariously bad... a lot of acting from a lot of the minor characters was AWFUL... there's a scene where these characters are being attacked by these aborigines, so one of the white dudes shoots and kills this indigenous girl they've been keeping hostage... and the response, by the indigenous actor, to the girl being killed was HILARIOUS.... such an under acted response to seeing someone literally die in front of you... nice... also what was the deal with Matthew Sunderland's character (the guy who walks the horse)... he literally didn't utter a single line of dialogue or emote in anyway, he just tags along with Sam Clafin's group of soldiers, walks a horse and is never heard of again...
Also, the horse. There are parts of this film where the characters are clearly walking on a 4WD path, and also parts where the terrain CLEARLY cannot be traversed by a horse... and conveniently in those scenes... the horse is absent, then one magical cut later and the horse is back with them.... There's also a really unintentionally funny scene, where our Aisling and Baykali's character are being chased by these people, and they somehow manage to lose them in the shrubbery... even though there's a great big horse you're trying to hide....
Also Aisling character is an inconsistent idiot. She's a character, whom you as an audience, is trying really hard to root for, but then she does things that go completely against her character and how she was established, as well as doing some incredibly stupid things as well. Her dream sequences were a complete and utter waste of time and added nothing to the story. The decision to present this film in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio also seemed to add nothing to the film.
The fact that this film has a "controversy" section on its wiki page is absolutely laughable. Yes, the first 20 minutes of the film is a bit confronting, but honestly the rest of the film is just.... boring. If you want a film that will make you feel absolutely sick to your stomach in an artistic, beautiful yet messed up way, go watch Irreversible.
Seriously... what the **** happened here.... I'm giving this a 4/10... but it's honestly closer to a 3....
Midsommar (2019)
Ari Aster does it again!
Ari Asters new film Midsommar is pretty good! It doesn't rival Hereditary, but it's still a really really good film.
As to be expected from Aster, the cinematography was absolutely stunning, with some very beautiful shots and purposeful framing. Aster is someone who knows exactly what he wants in the frame and when to use a wide. It was also really good to see the effects stepped up in this film, especially when it came to depicting people under the effects of psilocybin. I can tell you from first hand experience that the way Aster depicted the visual trips of people on mushrooms is incredibly accurate.
This film also has a pretty great sense of humour too, with Will Poulters character being the main comedic relief (although thankfully not overbearing). Aster, once again, is able to capture the true essence of grief and suffering of people so perfectly... With the very beginning of the film being very full on with the depictions of bipolar. Florence Pugh does an amazing job of portraying a character going through a lot of grief, and relationship dynamic between her and her boy friend was really well done and felt very believable. I think the biggest strength of this film would definitely be the build up and symbolism, but the actual pay off as to what it ended up being wasn't the greatest? That's not necessarily a bad thing, but after coming off the masterful Hereditary and what that film ended up being, this film did feel a bit directionless at points and definitely dragged. Where as in Hereditary, every single conversation and character interaction was all setting things in motion for the ending.
Midsommar is only 10 or so minutes longer than Hereditary but feels much longer compared to Hereditary. Hereditary also toes a very fine line of mainstream horror versus arthouse horror, where as Midsommar is just absolutely insane and unintentionally hilarious at certain points. If you thought Hereditary was weird, this film is very very surrealist.
The gore effects in this film ranges from terrifyingly accurate to... Kinda bad? There's some really awesome uncanny valley imagery used at certain points, but *spoilers* the scene involving the cliff suicide, Aster probably should've cut away instead of showing them hitting the rock, cause that looked really fake. *end spoilers*.
Another flaw was the choices in subtitling. At first I thought Aster was intentionally not subtitling the Swedish parts to put us into the perspective of the Americans being really confused, which I, at first, thought was a really clever thing to do, to put the audience into the perspective of the Americans, but then he just ended up subtitling it.. Which made me wonder why they didn't just have subtitles for the entire movie.
One other minor nitpick would be the scene where Florences character is crying in a plane toilet, and I'm just like "plane toilets aren't that spacious..."
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this film and will definitely be checking out all things Aster directs from here on out. I originally gave this film a 7, but it's looking to be more of an 8 for me. This is the third best film of the year so far, with Parasite being my current favourite and Under The Silver Lake being my 2nd.
Lean on Pete (2017)
Sad but uplifting too
Lean On Pete: This was a pretty good sad story about a 15 year old boy named Charlie and his dad starting a new life in Portland, when Charlie begins to work for a race horse owner and befriends one of the race horses named "Lean On Pete."
It's well shot, it's sporadically but appropriately scored when needed (it's always good to have a director who knows when to cue music and when it's best to just leave a scene silent and let the audience experience the emotion for themselves), well acted (although Charlie's character definitely felt like a 15 year old, I wish I could've gotten more out of his performance, because his character goes through a lot, and most of the time, his reactions seem understated, but he does finally deliver at the very end).
What I love about how the film is shot, mixed with the sound design, is that a lot of the shots taking place on the streets are shot on a wide, which tracks and follows Charlie as he is walking the streets, and the sound of passing motorists and general background noise is mixed in quite loudly to make us feel as lost and overcome with auditory stimuli as Charlie's character is experiencing at certain parts of the film. If you want to watch a sad but uplifting film, I recommend checking this one out. For me it's definitely an 8. It was teetering on a high 7 for ages, but I think it definitely deserves an 8 for sure.
Thoroughbreds (2017)
Pretty good directorial debut
Thoroughbreds: This was a fun, quirky and good film. A film that's interestingly and appropriately scored, shot pretty well, and the chemistry between the two main characters and the circumstances they both find themselves in, makes it a very enjoyable and fun watch. At an hour and a half, it's exactly the length that it needs to be.
For a directorial debut, this is a pretty fantastic first film, although this director does have a background in theatre, which would explain the way our two leads are written. For what it is, it's pretty great, although there was a scene at a house party where the music of the party is turned down pretty low and the characters are in the next room with an open arch way that leads to the dance room, and they're speaking to each other at conversation volume. It doesn't really sour the experience, but if they just had the characters yell at each other, or go outside (which they end up going anyway) to speak to each other, it would've made the immersion just that little bit better. Not many people will notice or care about these minor details in a film, but it's something I notice and point out.
This film is a 7 for me, it's a lot of fun, but I probably don't have too much of a desire to re-watch it.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Wes Anderson is a fantastic director
I absolutely adore this film, and I am really starting to come around to Wes Anderson films. This is a film that I would recommend to anyone, from general audiences, to those who appreciate the craft behind film making. Wes Anderson is an absolute master of framing and setting up perfectly symmetrical shots, and this film really shows his technical capabilities. The story is fun, doesn't take itself too seriously and is told in almost a fairytale kind of fashion, but doesn't take the liberties that a usual fairytale would take (except maybe one part at the end, but I think it's earned considering everything else that was done so flawlessly in the film).
When you take a great story like Beauty and the Beast and turn it into a bad live adaptation, the creative liberties you had when it was a cartoon DO NOT translate well to live action. This film knows this and chooses not to do anything that's too ridiculous or requires too much suspension of disbelief.
It's also great to see good child actors, as well as knowing how to direct groups of people that behave and move in realistic ways and aren't just standing around being extras. Although I wasn't a big fan of Fantastic Mr Fox, I did thoroughly enjoy Grand Budapest Hotel (which I intend on rewatching at some point) and Isle of Dogs.
Blue World Order (2017)
Literally one of the worst movies ever made
Everything is wrong with this movie, from the absolutely abysmal acting (bar one character), awful cinematography where literally EVERY SINGLE SHOT would be framed in a way where the top of the actors head would be cut off... you couldn't like... move the camera up a bit? Or maybe just shoot a wider take? Speaking of wider take, there's absolutely no consistency in chase scenes, or scenes where the actors are running through the woods, it's literally just random shots / cuts of our actors running through the woods randomly, you don't know where they're going, why they go in certain directions, how far away the bad guys are from them... there's one scene where this fat guy takes our main characters (Jake) daughter and somehow gets away from our main character... even though he had... maybe a 5 second head start on him... I'm not even kidding.... ARGH!!!
The directing of the action was absolutely atrocious, from the moment they show the "wrestling" scene filmed at The Stockade gym, sets the bar for just how bad the action in this film is going to be. There's even a scene where Jake is punching soldiers in the head... but the soldiers are wearing helmets... WHAT!?!? Also why is everyone doing giant capoeira esque spinning kicks?!?!? Yeah, let me just telegraph my attacks AS HARD AS I CAN....
The film also had an absolutely disgusting and inconsistent colour palette throughout. It tried to go for this murky post apocalyptic feel, but then some other parts, it's like they forgot and everything looks normal. There was also a hilarious scene that was VERY CLEARLY shot in the day, but they colour correct it to make it look like night... even though there's perfectly casted shadows over the people's faces and ground... Couldn't have just made the scene take place during the day?
There's a scene in the film where two people are talking and Jake reveals himself to the enemy, and one of the actors looks and sees our main character, BUT continues talking to the other guy normally... and only after a few seconds, does he ACTUALLY react and say "WHO ARE YOU, STAY BACK!!!"... like... as opposed to reacting mid sentence and being surprised... nah just finish your sentence THEN react to this threat in front of you. Continuing on from this same scene, Jake is VERY CLEARLY holding a person in his arms, even though they're wrapped in blankets, to which our two actors ask "WHAT'S IN THE PACKAGE?"... HNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH
The over abundance of pointless exposition was also an incredibly and stupid way to try and educate the audience into what your film is about... too bad NOTHING ELSE MAKES SENSE IN THIS FILM.... Who was the script supervisor? Did anyone even proof read this screenplay? Or did this director simply wanted to mash a bunch of genres together and film poorly choreographed action scenes first then write a script around them..? Cause that's honestly how it feels...
Oh look, filming inside a cave!! How are we gonna light it in a way that we can still create the shot but make the light source within the films universe believable? Yeah let's just use a bunch of high tech studio lighting in order for us to film this scene, but our characters are using candles to light the cave up, yeah this shot isn't totally over exposed or anything.
NO ONE'S CHARACTER IN THIS MOVIE MAKES ANY SENSE... AT ALL... who are the resistance? Why are they trying to fight against the Telstra tower people? Why is the guys wife working with the Telstra tower people but secretly has an ulterior motive? What was the deal with the first settlement and why they wanted Jakes daughter? What was the deal with the semi cool looking dude in the suit who was never utilized for anything? Why is the "bad guy" at the end suddenly siding with Jake? WHAT???!?!?!?
WHY DOESN'T ANYONE USE THEIR GUNS!!!!!!! There is so much poorly choreographed hand to hand combat and fight scenes, and of course the movie goes for the whole "one hit KO" approach, regardless of where people are hit... but like.... If anyone in this movie USED THEIR GUN... Jake wouldn't have made it as far as he did...
Why is the score in this movie so inconsistent with the tone that the film is trying to go for... actually WHAT KIND OF TONE IS THIS MOVIE GOING FOR?!?!?! Is it trying to be grim? Is it trying to be hopeful? Is it trying to simulate Hobbiton from The Hobbit (I'm not kidding).
There were 2 (but apparently 3) REALLY REALLY bad editing mistakes throughout this film... they are GLARINGLY OBVIOUS when you spot them... Also, don't use the fast forward function during car chase scenes, it's just a lazy way to try and make it like the cars are going a lot faster than they actually are... and it's glaringly obvious...
There's also a scene where the entire world is frozen in stasis, which I'll admit is a pretty cool concept, too bad you couldn't get your extras to stand still... kinda breaks the believability of your universe when you can tell your extras are having a hard time standing still and you can see em shaking... couldn't have gotten a second take?
USE A TRIPOD!
....ARE THOSE GUNS NERF GUNS!?!?!?!? Wow... they used nerf guns.....
The 2 hour run time was COMPLETELY unnecessary
This movie was trying to be a blend of sci fi with crazy action and contain a mad max style car chase scene... and it fails at all of them.
If you want a GOOD movie about infertility, go watch Children of Men.
If you want WELL DIRECTED fight choreography, go watch ANY Jackie Chan film or Gareth Evan's The Raid 1 and 2.
If you want a Mad Max style car chase scene, go watch Mad Max Fury Road.
I really really want to try and give this movie the benefit of the doubt and at least say that it was an admirable attempt for a first time film... but it wasn't.
Just because you filmed this in Canberra, doesn't mean I am going to let this movie and its faults slip by... But hey, Che Baker and Dallas Bland actually made a film, and that's more than I can say about a lot of people who have half baked ideas for what they want to do and never actually accomplish it. So even though this film is a flaming dumpster fire, at least it exists, and at least it looked like they had a lot of fun making it, so good on em, but still:
1/10.