I loved this movie but, the more I reflect on it, the less I like it. There's no doubt that Frances McDormand deserves every accolade - she's one of those rare actors who can completely inhabit a character and makes the screen light up. Chloé Zhao's direction is subtle and sublime, giving us a tender…
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I remember being blown away by the original Matrix. I was an impressionable teenager and it absolutely melted my mind. The story was recycled from a hundred different sci-fi tropes that I was already familiar with - but the direction and effects were outstanding. Nowadays, of course, CGI is par for the course. Literally any…
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What a dull and plodding movie. It is utterly devoid of joy, wonder, and excitement. Instead, we get obviously bored actors reciting tediously incomprehensible exposition for two hours. It's Captain Planet for the modern age. Only with their powers combined can our calculatedly-diverse cast defeat the baddies! So just like every other MCU story. The…
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I wish I was clever enough to get all the symbolism of this movie! Dev Patel is consistently one of the best British actors of the modern age. He doesn't just carry this film - he elevates it. Usually I'd tire of an actor being in every single shot, but he has this gift of…
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If you enjoyed this, I would thoroughly recommend that you watch シン・ゴジラ (Shin Godzilla) - a brilliant Japanese film about the bureaucracy involved in the Japanese state's reaction to a Godzilla attack. It's a biting satire - expertly showcasing the number of photocopiers it would take to organise the response. Brilliant film! Don't Look Up…
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What a treat of a movie! Kate Winslet shows, once again, how great acting isn't about who can shout the loudest, but who can convey the most meaning through a single glance. It is a movie of delightful contrasts - the sound design is overpoweringly loud, until it suddenly disappears. The silence is rarely punctuated…
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I'm not a big fan of superhero movies - and the Marvel ones are particularly bad - but this is… pretty good! It's nice to see a modern / westernised "Kung Fu" movie. All the budget of a blockbuster, all the cheese of cheap Wuxia. It's refreshing that so much of it is subtitled -…
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I like my comedies dark but… Fucking hell! I don't think I've ever seen anything so bitter, twisted, and hilarious. What if your dead girlfriend was haunting you and your one-night stand? It is an idea which has been done a few times. Think "So Haunt Me!" but with a lot more blood and sex.…
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James Bond Will Return! OK, but why though? Action movies these days are little more than non-interactive video games. You're not watching an actor perform feats of daring-do, subtly enhanced with cinema trickery; you're watching stunt doubles and cartoony CGI. So you're left to enjoy "witty" dialogue (patchy), nifty gadgets (lacking), and plot tension (mostly…
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I don't understand British movies from the 1960s. They often seem to be completely devoid of coherent plot. Things just happen with little regard for whether they make narrative sense. Much like The Magic Christian, this is a loose series of anarchic sketches strung together on a flimsy pretence. The audience, I think, is either…
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