pricelessmaple:

Diary Of A Slasher Episode 5!

Mega Movie Catch-Up #11

Restrictions have eased all around the place but it’s only a matter of time before shit hits the fan again and right now more and more people I know are now getting the “spicy cough” regardless of all their precautions. SO here’s another list of movies to consider for when (not if) you go into isolation…

dxvk:

if you found out that your dad has 120k followers on tiktok what would it be for? what would your dad’s tiktok niche be

Today at random, i had a memory of Key the Metal Idol - Hey, it was hard to track down back when, I wonder if that’s on Youtube? and there it was. I didn’t watch it the first time around despite being obsessed with the soundtrack, the unusual take on pinocchio and a scathing indictment of the idol industry because it’s largely about misogyny and that means there is violence against women.

This thing is a tonal mess: we start out with two episodes where the young protags are dodging rapists and we get shower scenes, breasting boobily yadda yadda (and I sat through Fushigi Yuugi before the OVAs and deeply regretted that) so nearly switched off. Then episodes 03-13 dole out clues to the mystery in teeny tiny increments and do a lot of scene switching like you’re supposed to connect the dots except most of the time there’s nothing to connect. We have lots of body horror, a big bad robot-phile warmonger then we switch to realistic scenes of an exploitative music industry where he also dabbles, it doesn’t land as subtle metaphor, it’s just jarring. A subplot introduced as comedy about cults later turns into a bloodbath then back to comedic shenanigans. Othertimes we get these extremely heartwarming scenes between Key who can’t emote properly and her childhood friend Sakura who’s probably on the spectrum (she’s amazing, she’ll be vicious in her attempts to help her friend understand that city living is dangerous, lash out before she’s figured out why she feels strongly, commit 100% then give up. Fiercely independent, fiercely needy. Not so much “tsundere” as “takes a while to process how she really wants to proceed” and wonderfully reckless. There’s probably 90s anime forums full of hate for her being an “inconsistent bitch” - I love her all the more for it.)

Episodes 1-13 are 18 minutes long. Episodes 14 and 15 are 1h20 long. Episode 14 was a full feature length infodump: 3 seperate people sat down narrating the life of Key’s family and overexplaining the magic. I do not know how this complete failure in pacing happened but they attempt to “fix” it in the later releases by making it four chapters: 1-7, 8-13, 14 then 15.

I’ll watch 15 tomorrow and let you know how that pans out. My expectations are low. This is however some very interesting storytelling tackling some rather big issues with the potential to be something I recommend and respect.

Key the Metal Idolthe anime finale continued the odd pacing with lots of speculating about Key without anyone actually talking to Key, took out a major player for unneeded pathos then ramped up the stakes for the villain to irrational levels. I get that this was an experimental show and had a lot to tackle but they really did overexplain the magic and that killed the magic. We don’t need a huge generational backstory, we need more emotional anchoring to Key herself. For a series about misogyny, it also failed to have women characters & women fans play active roles in the end, even Key’s choice feels like her hand was forced.

I did like that the idols Miho and Benito had complexity to them: Miho was ambitious in her hunger, Benito cunning in her hunger and both strong willed and defiant in their survival. Thoughtful details like Key releasing her lullaby only to those with natural curiosity in her effort to locate friends were glossed over in favour of these big action set pieces that dragged on. I liked that shrine maidens were acknowledged as having important roles as entertainers and the link between wanting to give back to your community spiritually in both.

It ages really badly in certain aspects: you can’t “do a feminism” by having a male crowd destroy a thankfully vacant gynoid for deceiving them and imply their their fan love is pure when your villain also cuts open gynoids for fun. Stan hatred for “rivals” is real but it’s ugly and there’s nothing righteous about it.

With both anime released in 1997, this makes an interesting companion piece to Perfect Blue (Junko Iwao plays an idol in both) and 99s Odishon for facets of the spiritual drive for purpose through entertainment and the machine that is the industry, down to the various complicit cogs. To understand it’s importance, it helps to remember that this was smack bang in the era of the bimbo scandals: vilified women absolutely dragged through the press as a matter of course, with no care for the actual facts. It was brave for a japanese production to paint the sleaze from top to bottom not just “gross fans” - even if these sleazebags get a redemption arc.

Ultimately it doesn’t anchor us enough to Key and she’s the most important character. Instead of giving us the lovable android who’s disregard for human social norms brings people together, the disarming honesty, shameless care for all humans etc etc we get a sleepwalking woman-baby who’s also treated like a potential weapon of mass destruction.

This would be such an easy reboot, we understand the power of hype & need for a parasocial friend more than ever. The industry hasn’t changed, the evil woman narrative is back with a vengeance. The power of belief and hope and feeling seen is real and we’ve all felt it, Key could tap into that and cut out two hours of technobabble on pink goo, orange tang, soylent green…

Something I didn’t mention in my last review is part of my hesitation to watch this anime is that I have a mild phobia of and dysphoria in crowds and spent several years reading or watching anything I could get on crowd psychology. I do not find large crowds uplifting - I do manage to find protests and sponteanous tributes moving but still can’t over the sense that it’s an unstable powerful creature. I would have a preferred an “I believe in The Doctor” type moment over a wound-up stadium of superfans.

Overall: of it’s time, ahead of it’s time, fantastic imagery, terrible pacing. little to no insight into our main character’s psychology but plenty into the people in the star making business. Key is the most powerful person in the world but also the least powerful in the story, things happen to Key instead of Key and friends driving her growth. The messaging is undermined in the classic “girlpower look at that body” way.

This could have been a lot worse.


An over simplified view on what makes humans ‘sentient’ and robots incapable of being such; then proposes the evolution of the machine to feel without any logical explanation. Consciousness is somehow quantified via a helmet that can process neurotransmissions into data.

Deon is an engineer for a robotics company, they designed a series of robots that help fight crime where it runs rampant in South Africa (basically like RoboCop). Deon, unsatisfied with his work and hungry for the next step in robotics, engineers a new type of A.I. from his home that has the capability to 'feel.’ Without wanting to take a risk on his newfound A.I. the CEO of the company refuses Deon’s proposal to test it out on a robot. Meanwhile, two criminals down on their luck hatch a plan to kidnap the engineer of the robots to, for a lack of better words, “make a like a remote or something to switch em off like a television.”

Instead of going off on a tangent on why this movie wasn’t good, I am going to start with how this movie could’ve passed as an “above average” film.

One of the main issues of this film is its exposition; sci-fi is all about the exposition, especially ones that aim to be blockbusters and or action flicks — it’s good to get a clear explanation out of the way for a clear line of awesomeness to ensue. Example; The Matrix, we get a little bit of action in the beginning to spark our interest and then we get a lot in the middle explaining the purpose of The Matrix and then the last 40 mins of the movie we get the lobby scene followed by the bullet time etc.

Chappie was onto something with its beginning with scientists explaining the unsurprising aspect of evolution that has transpired and then it falls flat on its face. If we are talking about the evolution of the robot, why not pursue Moore’s Law and compound it with Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns? There’s a story in there where Deon the engineer could have created a processor for these robots that he unknowingly knew was too advanced for his own pride blinds him to this fact, and thus the robots learn on their own and they create their own robot that devoids Asimov’s rules for robotics, and now we have an interesting character in Chappie being one of a kind.

Believe me, I really wanted to like this film, and actually prayed for its success. I still love Blomkamp and am excited for Alien 5, but ever since District 9, his follow ups have been getting progressively worse.

His decision to include Die Antwoord, and I literally mean Die Antwoord (they didn’t change their names), was NOT the answer (haha get it?). They did add a sense of wonderment to the film, but they took away from it as well as this was a clear promotion for the band as they spray painted Chappie with one of their album names on the side of his head and branded him with one of their popular monikers “Get Rich” in their signature font. The tattoos on Ninja and Yolandi, I can accept as it gives the film authenticity, but their over the top style only brought an imbalance to the film as Blomkamp had to find actors to keep up with Die Antwoord’s own eccentric style, which just ended up looking unnatural, not to mention their tracks played nonstop throughout the film.

If at all anything the film does a good job following the rules of a children’s novel and or cartoon in which an exposition climax and denoument must be encompassed in a 30mins period, but in the instance of Chappie everything drags on uncomforatably long — if it’s going to be over stylized satire go that route, if it’s supposed to be a provocative thought piece make it so and without outside elements that so obviously influenced the filmmaker — look instead to Ex Machina.

Apparently, a lot of people disagree on the film’s quality as the film is currently rated a 7/10 on imdb, which is absolutely preposterous to me as I see it as a 6, realtive to the imdb scale. A 7 or above still ranks the movie as being genuinely good, but certain core aspects of the film cause a great divide amongst people’s opinions, but a 6 is a clear cut indication that one needs to turn their brain off and completely suspend belief, because even at its lowest this film was somewhat entertaining.


2/4

Hopeless romantics.

Love in the Time of Hysteria (Sólo con tu pareja, 1991), is a film by the masterful Alfonso Cuaron. It is his first full length feature film and shows off his cinematic prowess without a high production budget. It serves as a cautionary tale with a sense of hilarity.

Tomas is an ad-man struggling to find a slogan befitting a can of jalapenos, between his work and figuring out ways to get out of work he squeezes in his personal life which is occupied by his insatiable need to satisfy his sexual urges. One day he hooks up with two women in the same night and gets caught. As payback one of the women pulls a nasty prank on him that leads Tomas to believe he has AIDS.

This film does a great job showing the incredible struggles of finding love. It shows a stark comparison between Tomas and his best friend Mateo—Tomas sleeps around and is by relative definition a good looking male whereas his friend Mateo is overweight but is successful as a doctor and is happily married. A delicate balance is established in the film for the audiences to easily tell the two apart. For Tomas takes the act of making love for granted as he unknowingly has sex with numerous partners but finds no meaning in what he does whereas Mateo and his wife Teresa look down on Tomas for they feel like he takes the best parts of being in love for granted, as Teresa constantly scorns Tomas for his ways.

Upon learning of his condition Tomas goes through many ranges of confused emotions as he even creates a manifest of all the women he has slept with and figures out that this is not him, and that all this time he was doing this to fill a void in his life; he ultimately decides to commit suicide, but is often sidetracked by his own cowardice to do so.

The film displays how many view relationships as something that is more of an imprisonment rather than a gift. It takes the protagonist through a grueling self realization process as he is tortured by the thought that he will one day suffer a slow and painful death; teaching the audience that love is not something that is to be taken light heartedly nor is it achieved through simple means and therefore should not be given out like candy.

Another thing to note once again are the fantastical, yet simple set pieces Cuaron uses to tell his story. There is a lot to look at for he frames his shots with focus being his primary initiative, for the audience is forced to use the elements of his cinematography to also figure out what is going on and what the character is thinking.

Not the best in terms of story, but Cuaron’s artistic prowess keeps the audiences’ attention transfixed on an otherwise “stale-ish” story.

¾

-DK

Not once does this film give into popular conventions. And I love it for that.

Snowpiercer is a film by Bong Joon Ho, this was a film with clear classist values with sci-fi undertones. The director did an excellent job bringing to life his ambitious vision; inspired by a French graphic novel (I have not read it, therefore I will not compare it).

Earth has succumbed to the effects of global warming and in a last ditch effort, humans release a chemical cooling agent into the atmosphere, in hopes to delay the inevitable. This fails; and in turn throws the planet into another Ice Age ending civilization as we know it. The precious few that remain, live in a train, created by its deranged genius Wilford; empowered with the God complex, Wilford forcibly creates a caste system in which the poor suffer inhumane conditions while the rich survive blissfully at the front of the train.

Visceral and intense, the film’s momentum happens rather quickly, as the characters are introduced one after another. They are all in agreement that living in the back of the train sucks, and what’s the point of holding onto erroneous ideals of class when society as a whole has already been reduced to a precious few, why not smash the socioeconomic barrier and attempt to progress humanity beyond the train.

As the gritty violence unfurls and the revolution begins, a lot of violence ensues in a leisurely fashion. I say leisurely, for the survivors even take a break from fighting to ring in the new year, enjoy sushi, and observe a classroom. I really enjoyed this aspect of the movie for Bong Joon Ho plays off the ethos of the survivors. There’s no where else to go but backwards or forward and atop of that aspect, what real purpose is there in fighting, when there’s virtually nothing left to fight over. The tight quarters of the train impacts the environment of its characters effectively thus making the film less about being a sci-fi action thriller and more of an allegory on humanity’s destructive nature.

Ed Harris plays an offshoot of Conrad’s deranged “Mr. Kurtz” or depending on how you look at it; Coppola’s Col. Kurtz. As he is a genius engineer that built the train and eventually adopts a philosophical view that eventually develops into an insane God complex, obsessed with keeping everyone on the train, as he decides who lives and who dies.

Depending on how you look at it the train in the film can be viewed as a metaphor, for like society’s thought process; narrow and enclosed, the train in itself is narrow and enclosed as it trudges forward in a never ending loop, doomed to repeat the same steps over and over again.

Bong Joon Ho took on an immense task readying this film for the international market, and it’s a true testament to his skill as a director of which English is not the primary language, yet he was still able to direct a cast that is comprised of mostly English speaking Caucasians, and still make an effective sci-fi film.

3.5/4

One thing is clear about this film, the director has seen zombie movies before.

World War Z is directed by Marc Forster, a director who in my opinion just can’t seem to catch a break in the action genre. Don’t get me wrong I loved Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner, both inspirational and uplifting films, but come on now, Quantum of Solace and Machine Gun Preacher? And now WWZ—money is clearly the motive here.

World War Z is the film adaptation of the book by Max Brooks. I have never read the book, so I will not be comparing the film to it; this review will be solely based on the film’s merit. A viral pathogen threatens mankind as it turns people into violent zombies that topple armies and governments. One man is charged with journeying across the globe in search of an answer to the pandemic…

There are a couple moments in the film where we as an audience get to realize that this is a great film, but not for what it is made for. The writing sends us off in multiple directions and ultimately loses the audience on the film’s point. When the comparison between mother nature and serial killers is formed we begin to think, oh maybe humans did this, maybe there is a lesson to be learned here, but then that point gets quickly dropped. Then I was infatuated by Brad Pitt’s character and his resourcefulness as the minutia in his character’s observational skills slowly gives clues to the audience on solving the pandemic; these skills were taught to himself from his days as an UN Investigator. The film begins to finally finds its bearings in that it is all on Pitt to save the world, kind of ridiculous; so is this film supposed to be a metaphor or a political thriller? And then we get the film’s money shots in which we realize this is a survival movie, but on a grand scale, but then as that begins to develop in the film we are brought right back down again for the film then actually turns into a decent survival horror movie.

One grandiose point I’d like to bring up, that in my opinion was the film’s saving grace from being a total fiasco, were the sequences in Israel. From a sociological standpoint this was remarkable, because the Jewish nation of Israel is comprised of people who have been persecuted for literally thousands of years, it only seemed forthright that they would be the most prepared as one of their analysts explains to Pitt’s character that the nation of Israel has come to embrace logic and implemented normalcy bias into their defensive strategies.

As Brad Pitt traverses around the world in search for an answer, there was a simile I kept thinking about; like a chicken with its head cut off, this film runs around desperately searching for its roots, for it’s completely unoriginal and unfaithful to its zombie roots, but serves as a decent anthropological look into the human potential in surviving an outbreak of biblical proportions.

I know this film only got green lit because of the recent trend humping of the zombie genre, so I’d like to interject a little overview on how one should perceive this genre. The best zombie film of all time, and one you should see before you consider yourself an aficionado of any sort and or even state an opinion about zombies is “George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978).” This film not only is packed with brutally honest social commentary, but it is the reason why we love zombie films as Romero masterfully taps into the human psyche and our natural urge to reign chaos and act out our most ornery inhibitions. If you want to expand your knowledge base even further you’ll watch the cultist masterpiece, also from Romero “Day of the Dead (1980),” this film now expands upon Dawn of the Dead and gets experimental with its own subject matter, but if you want to see how a proper zombie horror/survival film is done, there is Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later,” as its surrealistic take on the human condition warps your perception of reality as Boyle creates a scary scenario that felt all to real for comfort. And obviously ‘The Walking Dead’ series is the best contemporary off-shoot of Dawn of the Dead, for it finally is able to serialize the horror rather than limit it.

WWZ, wasn’t bad, it was fairly good. However, there is a film somewhere in this one that’s an actual great zombie horror-survival film, and hopefully the sequel will get it right. The director of this film has clearly seen zombie movies and used their outline to make WWZ, and that was my main problem with it. One would think with a $200 million budget; a budget, mind you, that’s unheard of for a zombie movie, would have had more originality than this film, but credit is due in that an entertaining zombie movie was made with a PG-13 rating…

2.5/4

-DK

A mind made for murder.

The Iceman is a film by Ariel Vromen. I have never heard of him before this, but he does a decent job creating a film with a lot of potential, but with a lack of direction on its story and its characters’ developments, which ultimately makes this film a lackluster portrayal of a ruthless killer.

Richard Kukliniski was dubbed the “Iceman” after his victims were found to be frozen in order to hide their time of death from the coroners. He rose from low level illegal pornographic distributor for the mafia to favored hitman for the New Jersey and New York crime families; over the span of his illustrious 30+ years as a contract killer he has claimed to have killed over 100 people. During that time span he also raised a family, of whom knew nothing of his troubled career. This film is based on a true story of an inherently evil being who has claimed to have no emotions towards the killings of others.

A lot of the problems in this film revolve around its own timespan. Because Kuklinski is a sociopath and exactly when he started killing are left to our own interpretation the film suffers, for it begins to develop a plot and then goes off track just as quickly. The focus becomes less and less about the psychological nature of what makes Kukliniski so fascinating and more about the betrayal that comes with the territory of being a criminal. There wasn’t enough method in the film to his killings, this was a big “no-no” for me considering a lot of these details are already readily available via the HBO’s documentary/interview with the real Richard Kukliniski.

However, The Iceman is enriched with excellent performances, from all of its actors as they are introduced into the film almost like the ghosts that inhabited Scrooge’s dreams in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Each significant visitor being played out in short segments of pure brilliance. It is in these short moments do we get to see where the film shines for it is after each of these interactions do we as an audience get to see Kukliniski’s character lose his way, more and more.

Specific moments that stood out for this film were his interactions with his brother played by Stephen Dorff as he visits him in jail, as well as his interactions with his own wife played by Winona Ryder, and lastly his brief “divine intervention” with James Franco.

These actor’s performances really stood out for me for they are the driving force towards Kuklinski’s actions. His brother revealing that they are cold-blooded killers and unfit for society, his wife anchors what little humanity may or may not exist within Kuklinski, and lastly with James Franco’s character we realize Kuklinski is truly crazy for he questions God’s inability to stop himself from killing others, he even pauses his execution to give God an opportunity to stop him.

I am glad this was made, for Vromen is a talented director. He was able to make sense of a screenplay that should have otherwise been a movie that almost hit the 3 hour mark, but is abridged into just under 2hrs, presenting a lot of beautiful detail but failing to elaborate on a lot of it as they are short handed with cliche story telling to keep the film with a duration that can appeal to many. He just has to be careful on his next projects for I am sure this film will garner him attention in Hollywood.

Michael Shannon delivers a chilling performance as his burly disposition slowly turns from nihilism to pure evil. If this film wasn’t enough to prove his talent, I don’t know what will.

¾

-DK

“I’ve never really had much of an imagination. But still I would try to picture the exact moment when the beating of my heart would no longer be going on inside my head.”

Albert Camus - The Stranger

-via posttoxic

WOAH Wakanda! Much visual stunning! Very fight big! Much developed world as if not origin story, very dive right in. Like well developed villain, maybe one of better in MCU, though, as with many MCU movies, wasted killing villain for future movie use. Significance of black leaders, both men and women in movie. Much important! When sequel announce? Gotta know phase 4 sequel coming. Great acting from all around cast! Can’t wait for Infinity War!!!

WOW ensemble! Much deserves award for for best ensemble cast for casting director. Is that a thing? Let’s make it a thing. Perfect 3 stars in Henson, Spencer, and Monae with support from Costner, Dunst, Parsons, and Ali. Great characters with BIG personalities. Tells fascinating serious story with PLENTY of humor. Doesn’t hold racist history back, very straight forward and honest about it. Can’t say enough about Henson’s performance, should have been nominated along with Spencer. Maybe passed at Golden Globes, but must see movie in competitive year. 4 Paws up!

Wow beautiful movie. Very throwback in style, reminisce of stuff like Singing In The Rain and older movie musicals. Great cinematography with city views. Grow to like characters at decent pace, instant liking Stone and growing to like Gosling. Interesting watching life advance as characters fall in love. Almost realistic in way life works out in plot. Much love non-predictable ending through big music number, especially sound stage set dance. Very fitting. Such funny moments through movie. Doge understand reviews saying “Hollywood in love with itself” but those people miss the throwback. Or maybe not appreciate or into older movie style. Much award deserve. Very cool movie. 4 Paws up!

Okay, cool visual. Much opening with less dialogue, similar to 2001 A Space Odyssey. Slow development with decent build. Major plot aspect not as advertised, kinda leaves you wonder if likable character in Pratt. Still plenty happy middle section before big development. Kinda fun robot character, but again not necessarily likable, especially with plot twist. Fitting initial ending with Pratt and J-Law, but kinda wonder *SPOILER HERE* how does everyone feel about wake up and go “oh look, here’s 2 random dead bodies.” Still, decent sci-fi movie. Not great, but plenty entertaining. 3 Paws. 

STOP! WAAAAHT! NOOOO! Bad! Bad movie peoples! So much wrong. 2 seconds of plot then pointless running action followed by 2 seconds of plot followed by pointless running action! Between this and Allied, Doge don’t think Marion Cotillard cared about movies she made this year. No likable characters. One good thing; good cinematography in past scene shots. Much weird build for sequel that won’t happen. Someday there will be a good video game movie, but this still isn’t it. 2 paws, maybe. 

A LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY!

Doge want MOOOOOORE!!! Best Star Wars since very first original! So much great story detail! Much planning for story of where need be for ep 4! Fantastic rebel cast, especially Felicity Jones. DOGE IS ONE WITH THE FORCE, THE FORCE IS WITH DOGE! Interesting known cast members for movie with plenty of lesser known. Great CGI of older cast to tie into ep 4. Great idea bringing back Jimmy Smits for older Bail Organa, low key smartest idea in movie. SOOOO much sass from droid K-2SO, love it! Fantastic fight scenes building up at ending. Just fantastic. Doge saw twice opening weekend, and have tickets for Imax next week. Go see it if you haven’t, though you probably all have already. 4 Paws up!!!

Lots fun! Big magical adventure! Great strong female lead for story with great new voice actress. Beautiful animation, especially lots water detail everywhere. Best Disney music, possibly best since Lion King, def better than Frozen, but Doge love anything with Lin-Manuel Miranda! Good competition for best animated movie oscar! 4 Paws up!

*tries not to scream* *screams* AHH SO GOOD! Wow new wizarding america! Much new people, terms, creatures, and more! Very more acting potential with older, experienced cast, allows for darker tones in what was darker movie, will probably continue with darker movies in sequels. Big mysterious mystery, figure out who is who (Doge figured out both parts of this, but I’m getting better at doing that). Fantastic big magic action fight scenes, reminiscent of HP7part2. Such anticipating sequel because only get bigger and darker. Can’t want to see Ilvermony (next movie, PLEASE!!!)! Must watch again to catch new creatures and terminology again and learn, study all before sequel. AHHH! 4 Paws!

Very much MARVELous! Big action world twisting, reminiscent of Inception but on next level. Good pacing, develops new world of magic in MCU, building on pre-existing universe. Such understand explanation of new items and abilities in Doctor Strange comics with ties to other MCU movies (Thor?) Cool fight scenes, especially with mirror universe. Must have gigantic effects budget because DAMN! Such non-apologetic and sassy performance from Beautiful Cumquat (yes, he’s hotter than Beck Bennet). Now able to predict ties to future MCU movies, especially Thor-Ragonorak and Hulk tie in. Of course some suffer from origin story, but not enough to bring movie down. Maybe best origin story in MCU yet. 3 ½ paws up!

Oooh wow. Very woah. Much falling into Rachel’s experience, crazy cameras work for drunken experience. Mixes up with other characters well, great line tying all together at end. Dark work for dark characters. No loving any characters, but done purposefully, more sympathetic if anything. Interesting cast at time, especially Kudrow and Prepon. But probably most outstanding performance ever from Emily Blunt, totally Oscar nomination worthy if not given. That said, not necessarily fast paced, but draws viewer in. Even with parts of mystery predictable (Doge figure out who done it halfway through but not full details) still want full situation. Not a movie for everyone, but totally audience exist for this. For fans of Gone Girl (duh?) 3 ½ paws up!

My overall feeling is that I’m eager to see it again.

Love how Gotham looks. It’s creaky and creepy. Love the gothic interiors of Wayne Manor and the church.

It’s really beautifully lit. You can still track what’s going on because it’s lit so well or makes use of silhouette.

This movie takes its time … with … everything … it’s really deliberate. In one sense it makes it really easy to follow along, like this isn’t so fast-paced and jam packed that it’s just overstimulating you. 

Love the cast. To a person, everyone delivers. I was an optiminist about these casting choices from jump street and I think they aquit themselves really well. Up until I saw this movie  

This is so heavily focued on Batman. Lest that seem obvious there is very little Bruce Wayne TM in this movie. Like the best iterations of Batman before it, this movie gets that Bruce Wayne is the mask. It also makes the choice not to use the advantages Brucy Wayne has to try to change the city. By the end he realizes he has to be more than just vengance and presumably that includes useing the billionaire-playboy Bruce Wayne cover to do recon etc.

The beginning of this movie is so strong. The intrigue and working the case with Batman and Gordon then Batman and Alfred are probably my favorite scenes.

The action is filmed in long takes. We see bodies fully in the frame. It compares favorably to Nolan’s take in this regard. This Batman can move and the fights go to ground. When people criticized Nolan’s presentation of fighting I’d usually think, wait what? Then on rewatch it became more clear what the criticisms were about. But it didn’t matter as much because I was so affecteed by the story in those cases I remembered the fighting being more like what’s presented here. The violence isn’t impressionistic or overly stylized. The Batman’s suit is obviously bullet-proof because he knows people are going to shoot at him. 

Penguin walking like a penguin, lol.

The music is amazing. Like deceptivly simple but so powerful. Love the percussion, too. 

Was Selina running a long con and it happened that her friend got murdered? If she was just using Ana to get to Falcone why’d she get the passport back? Also why was there not a mention of the murder weapon used on Mitchell before the third act? We get tthe lingering shot of the odd edge on the floor? Chalk it up to Gotham curruption in the ME’s office, maybe. Why isn’t there mention of like, more security for the other mayoral candidate? 

The ending is beatutifyl and hopeful. I really craved one more Alfred scene. Like a moment between Batman and Alfred where he explicitely plans to use the Bruce Wayne persona more. This is a case where the run-time works against this movie. If it’s 3 hours long, why miss a beat?

The story is in a bit of bind because Gordon is a “good cop.” We don’t get the kind of noir that really indicts cops as part of systemic corruption to be overcome to get true justice. The Batman goes as far as allowed in a big budget movie. 

The length of this movie makes it necessary to rewatch it. Right now so many of my nit-picks could possibly be eliminated with a closer look. Like why didn’t Batman get closer to detecting the sea wall was at risk? Was the reporter with dirt on the Wayne’s the Riddler’s father? And wasn’t that reporter already dirty, as in he was a reporter on Maroni’s payroll? 

My overall feeling is that I’m eager to see it again.

I have complicated feelings about The Last Duel. There’s no way I can deny the affection I have for Ridley Scott as a director. I love Alien. I love Blade Runner. Legend, fuck yes. Thelma and Louise? I love. G.I. Jane, I’m looking respectfully. Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, Prometheus, The Counselor … I enjoyed Alien: Covenant. And I’ve watched with excitement all of his other work. I don’t care if it isn’t “great.” I like what he does.

So I was interested in any new Ridley Scott movie purely on the level of being a Ridley Scott fan. It’s also fair to say I’m not a fan of Ben Affleck or Matt Damon. I don’t find their abilities as actors compelling. If there is a lesson to take from them it is to write your own material and make yourself marketable as a player/coach, so to speak. That’s not something they invented. I think Sylvester Stallone is a great example of write-your-own-great-story and cast yourself. Again, it isn’t to suggest that’s easy, but that writing is a good skill and possibly a way to break through, but writing is also a positive emotional outlet. 

The Last Duel is based on a book by the same name. The book very carefully lays out how the law works at the time of the tale’s telling. It explains the custom of trial and the recognition of rape as a crime, although it is a crime of property and EW to that. But the book is the kind of detailed, popular history work, that’s accessible to lay readers, like me. I’m not writing a thesis on medieval rape culture of the 14th century but I can follow the twists and turns of the case thanks to the book’s attention to detail.

The movie doesn’t have that depth. Some of that is due to the limits of nuance that movies can convey, but the script is also at fault. I watch this movie and think, “Ohhhh, Damon and/or Affleck came across this book at a galley and thought ‘Ooooh 14th Century #MeToo.’" 

The book is fair and unambiguous is believing Marguerite’s account of her rape. The movie lays out Jean’s, and then Le Gris’s account before her’s. To its credit, the movie actually subtitles her account as the "Truth.” But the clearness of her rape and Le Gris’s guilt is apparent early in the book. Giving the game away does not a good movie make, so we have the movie’s three account structure to keep us hooked.

Regarding the limitations of the script I still can’t help but wonder if it was acted by players other than Damon and Affleck would the movie have been better. Indeed, the moments when Jodie Comer and Adam Driver are on screen together feel like a different movie because they are that much better actors.

Ridley Scott blamed millennials for this movie not performing at the box office. Even as a millennial, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he made those comments during the promotion of House of Gucci and his words were less a millennial slam than a marketing ploy. Ironically I didn’t see House of Gucci at the movies, but my Boomer aunts and uncles did.

Having said all that, it does feel really fucking satisfying to see a rapist beaten in a duel to the death and strung up by his boots.

Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel is good, but the book by Eric Jager is better.

The Unseen Terror of A CURE FOR WELLNESS (2017)

also

On this episode of #Giant Mess, Bojack Horseman, Erin Brockovich, That Awkward Moment, the Mets 5th starter in rotation, Leonard Williams, Rhett Ellison’s retirement, and Evan Engram.

https://audiomack.com/giantmess/song/bojack-horseman-s6-erin-brockovich-mets-5th-starter-giants-trading-evan

On this episode of “Giant Mess”, giant mess Neal Lynch talks about…

• Bojack Horseman Season 6 (The Final Season)
• Dark Waters movie starring Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, and Bill Pullman
• Erin Brockovich movie starring Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, and Aaron Eckhart
• That Awkward…

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