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Coup de chance (2023)
The worst Allen film I have ever watched
And I haven't watched some of his more recent work.
Written and directed by Allen, it's very much a movie in the Fench tradition, the tradition of Chabrol and Truffaut: Hitchcock minus the suspense.
That's a real shame because Allen has is a great director of suspense, he proved that with movies like Crimes and Misdemeanor, Manhattan Murder Mystery and Match Point. This does not come near those titles.
Allen is a master filmmakers. I am a big fan of his. Hannah and Her Sisters, Annie Hall, The Purple Rose of Cairo and Crimes & Misdemeanors are all time greats. I just can't understand why he'd want to make something like this. Something this empty and tedious. What's the point?
Barbarian (2022)
Starts off quite amazing, then slithers into mediocrity
I gave the movie a 5, to help bring down the score, but I think it belongs somewhere in the 6.5 range.
It has too many qualities to dismiss.
Barbarian is all about build-up, and the first half of the movie is quite tense and stylish. What the hell is going on here? Who are these people and what's happening to them? The movie does a great job at setting up these characters and creating tension.
But creating a satisfying final act is more difficult than proper build-up. And it seems as if the filmmakers had no clue where to go with this story. Not to spoil anything, but the movie just works to a rediculous and obvious reveal and climax. It's just not worth it, and the second half of the movie didn't deserve the first 42 minutes, as good as they were. The 1 hour 42 minutes movie is really two different movies put together.
I love some of the concepts that the movie plays with, but it has been done much better in other movies. Movies like The People Under The Stairs and Don't Breathe.
Mindhunter (2017)
Exciting, but not what I expected
It sure is exciting. It's about serial killers, so that's always thrilling. The series contains a lot of real life serial killers. It's quite amazing to see all of these psychopaths brought to life, though it does leave the after taste of gimicky exploitation. Netflix has never been accused of being restrained and subtle.
The show isn't actually a docu-drama. It's a procedural in which new cases are tackled and solved every episode or so. The show is more The X-files than a docu-drama. Which I didn't expect, but isn't necessarily a criticism.
The lead actor is miscast. His face is too perfect and Hollywood, for a character who's supposed to be this loner nerd-type. The character is partly modelled on former FBI agent John Douglas. Douglas did not look like a Calvin Klein model. The same goes for the famale lead. She looks to good and too clean for an experienced police psychiatrist. It might seem like a silly criticism, but it really is irritating.
The show is very comedic. There's a lot of comedy, again similar to what The X-files did.
Monster (2022)
Netflix
It's the best Netlix has done since the 2017's release of season 4 of black Mirror. That's not saying much, considering the mediocre quality of Netflix's content.
It took Spielberg 3 hours to tell the story of the Holocaust. Netflix pulls out 8 hours to tell the story of this demented cannibal serial killer. The priorities are all messed up. What's up with Netflix telling two-hour stories in 8 hours? And what's with this fascination that Netflix has with serial killers? It seems like it's all they can manage to come up with, docu-dramas of serial killers. Can't they manage to come up with an original story for once? And what about telling us a story that lifts us up, excites us and inspires us, all at the same time.
I'm rambling, but I don't think Dahmer deserved a movie as well-made as this, and this show symbolizes the artistic and moral bankrupcy of these streaming sites.
It's incredibly well-made though. It really is the best that Netflix has done since the first seasons 4 seasons of Black Mirror. Better than the highly acclaimed, but overbloated and tedious The Irishman and Roma.
The acting is some of the best i've seen in a long time. The lead actor, Peters, just ticks off all the boxes. Even if you're aware with Dahmer, his charecterization is quite amazing. He does the Dahmer impersonation, but he manages to create a very real person at the same time. The minor actors are all quite good. Really good acting.
The writing, directing and cinematography are fantastic. It's done very stylish, but composed at the same time. It didn't surprise me to find that the first episode was directed by Carl Franklin, one of the best black directors ever to work in Hollywood, known for his 1992 minor masterpiece One False Move. The series was written by Ryan Murphy, the guy who created Glee.
It's exploitative, and doesn't have an original bone in it's body, but it's suprisingly tasteful considering the material and the involvement of Netflix.
Mike (2022)
It's bad
And it has nothing to do with the fact that Tyson wasn't evolved. Jake LaMotta wasn't involved in the making of Raging Bull either. I actually expected a lot from this after reading that Tyson was critical. At least it wasn't going to be a Tyson self promotion.
But I was disappointed. The filmmaking just isn't good. Cinema is dying right now, with the rise of Netflix and Hulu and all of these streamers.
It's loud and flashy, a knockoff Scorsese, and the acting is terrible. Even legendary Keitel is uninspired.
Again, it's shocking how these streaming sites are incapable of producing quality content. Again and again, these streamers dump on us this bland, generic content. There's a thousand times more creativity and talent in an Evil Dead II or a Blood Simple then you'll find in a 100 Netflix/Hulu projects. Let alone the canyon in talent between this trash and a movie like Raging Bull.
Prey (2022)
Brilliant concept, flawed movie
18th century North American tribe confronted by a high-tech alien creature. It's a genuinely great concept, in a time when these high concept movies have become ever so rare.
But instead of getting Apocalypto-meets-Predator, we receive Marvel-meets-Predator. The filmmakers just don't know what to do with the material. They seem in over their heads.
The movie's writing is really weak, in a movie that doesn't need that much writing to succeed. The dialogue is so weak that it becomes annoying. It's telling that the most notable line of dialogue is take from the 1987 original: 'If it bleeds, we can kill it.'
The lead character is a terribly written character. She's entirely unbelievable and belongs in a Marvel movie, not in this. She confronts the Predator and does what Arnold Schwarzenegger and his highly armed military buddies couldn't do in the classic original. She's only a teen, 14, 15 years old perhaps, but she's already an expert medicine man, expert at tracking, a brilliant marksman, can fight off a lion and she's a better fighter than Bruce Lee. At one point in the movie, the powerful Predator drills his grizzly metal shield across the girl's body. What would have killed any other character in the movie, only leaves the lead teenage girl gasping for a second before being ready again to fight. Again, the character belongs in the Marvel universe, not in a Predator movie.
35 years ago, Aliens saw a female hero confront an alien menace. Prey made me admire even more how Aliens was able to craft such a strong, believable female action lead.
Prey is more of an action adventure than a horror movie. And the action sequences in general are really a let down. It's all very fast and 'clean' and acrobatic. More reminiscent of Marvel than the original's Schwarzenegger-brand of action-horror.
The camerawork is hit and miss. There are some beautiful shots out there. I really dislike the drone shots.
I watched the English version and I did not like the acting, especially the dialogue by the Comanche cast.
It's a letdown, but definitely worth watching.
Watcher (2022)
Well-made, but by-the-rules thriller
Can't stress how well made the movie actually is. One of those tedious Netflix thrillers this is not. It's beautifully lighted, the camera work is smart and the writing is on-point. The actors do a great job, across the board.
The movie eventually ends on a disappointing, unsurprising note. And what went before just wasn't exciting and fresh enough to deserve more than a 6.5 rating.
I wish these types of Hitchcock movies were made more often.
Atlantic City (1980)
Great story and great acting
The script deserved a better movie. I feel like the movie would have been even better if it had a different director. Malle is not a great visual director at all. His shots and set-pieces are awkward and at times unappealing. I feel like he was given so much respect in Hollywood purely because of his French background. He must be among the most overrated filmmakers ever.
But it's a really great story, about this old nobody who gets a shot at being a somebody, if only for 15 minutes. A great, funny, exciting, tragic tale, executed without the style and passion that a better directer would have brought.
The Black Phone (2021)
Great concept, not so great execution
It definitely is worth watching.
The movie has major issues though.
Why do modern movies have this television look to them? Have filmmakers forgotten the art of cinematography? The movie has a tedious, bland look to it.
The music is non-existent.
The writing is very mixed. The dialogue is terrible, and the plotting has real issues.
The acting is terrible, across the board. Ethan Hawke is a talented actor, but he has very little to do.
It felt like an above average television movie.
X (2022)
Not that good
I love the first half of the premise, of a 70s adult movie crew that finds itself stalked by a menace.
The execution is just not very good. Really, nothing works quite as it should. The porn angle isn't executed that well and that side of the story just drags along. The slasher part isn't interesting either once it becomes clear who the killers are. An elderly woman who kills because of sexual frustration. It sounds better than it is I guess.
I also didn't think the movie was that good stylistically.
A disappointment.
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Exillerating
Hannah and Her Sisters was Allen definitively establishing himself as one of the great film directors. The idea that the world still needed any convincing back in 1986 might seem ridiculous, but Allen hadn't been able to shake off the image of a clownster. When he attempted hard drama, critics reacted with discomfort across the board.
Throughout the 80s, Allen toned it down on the autobiographical and farcical tendencies of his pictures, and more and more built his movies around fleshed out characters and plots that might seem meandering but were incredibly well constructed.
By the time he made Hannah, Allen was a different filmmaker than he was in 1976. Allen wasn't the gifted comedy talent any longer, he was now a master filmmaker.
Allen's direction here is masterful. There's a scene where the titular sisters are seated in a restaurant. The older sister is her usual strong self, another sister is filled with frustration, the third is keeping a dark secret. Allen records this moment by having the camera 'revolve' around the table, with the camera slightly panning in order to record the conversation.
Another scene where Allen courts the sister of his ex-wife by reminding her that they had once gone through the worst date in his life. The entire scene is shot in one long take. Why mix it up when so much is already going on.
Though his most traditional work, Allen isn't exactly committed to the rules of the game. His character one moment will be seen walking the streets, depressed. Next, we're watching one of his dates play out in a punk rock café. Allen's date is a coke-abusing punk type. Allen definitely isn't. Moments later we find the environment changed again, we're now witnessing Cole Porter perform. Now it's Allen enjoying himself and his date is the fish out of water. It's a three minute sequence, and he's set up the arch of two characters without us realizing it.
These are great moments in a movie filled with great moments. But unlike Annie Hall, which had its own great scenes, Allen is here committed to a narrative and to characters. If Annie Hall was a stand up routine, this is a novel.
Hannah is a marvelous movie. Ingeniously scripted, beautifully acted, written and shot. The music and editing are marvelous. It's a great achievement.
Kimi (2022)
Mr. Soderbergh, please keep doing your thing
Kimi fits neatly in a list among titles like Blow Up, Bird with the Crystal Plummage, The Conversation, Blow Out. Suspense thrillers modeled on Rear Window.
Lead stumbles upon evidence of a murder and is forced to turn detective. It's a great concept and I wish more filmmakers played with it.
Soderbergh and Koep transport the story to a very modern setting, COVID and working from home included. And they pull it off.
The movie is gorgeously shot. In a period where filmmakers can't seem to get the lighting and coloring right, KIMI looks better than any movie I've seen in a long while. Soderberg is visually a masterful filmmaker. And in Koepp he has a great writer delivering a tight story that holds tension into the Blood Simple-ish climax.
I did not like the scenes where the lead is being chased. Soderbergh is not a great director of action sequences and it shows.
Soderbergh has made a great suspense thriller before in Side Effects, a favorite of mine. Kimi is not that much lesser of a movie than that.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
This is not a movie
Warner Brothers replaced Zack Snyder with another director half way through shooting the original. This is supposed to be Snyder's intended vision. Which turns out not to be a movie at all, but rather a mini series. A 4 hour long mini series, it's about 2 hours too long for a digestable movie.
That's the biggest criticism: I could never finish this in one sitting. Too much of a chore.
For what it is, a mini series, it's quite interesting. It's Batman and Superman, so it will always be interesting. Snyder is too obvious as a filmmaker, making this a flawed story. But it's interesting, and definitely worth checking out, spread over a couple of evenings.
Dopesick (2021)
Frustrating experience
Material this good deserves better. Personally, I'm getting a bit sick of the Netflix 'let's tell an 2 hour story in 8 hours, just because' approach to story telling. Part of what makes cinema such a powerful art form is its limited time slot, forcing filmmakers to approach the material with urgency and inventiveness. It's where a lot of cinematic creativity comes from. Dopesick really does suffer from a lack of coherence: at moments, it can't help but turn soapy.
Dopesick suffers from weak writing, directing, cinematography and acting. Don't let the rating here fool you.
The camerawork is the most tedious I've seen in a while, with these repetitive panning shots, to the left most of the time, that have no purpose. It's some of the blandets, unimaginative directing one can imagine.
The color palette is a pain in the eyes. It's this bland, grey-ish look that has become popular in recent decades, with the spread of digital.
The acting and characterizations are very mixed. Michael Keaton can't help but be amazing, but even he has moments where he seems not really interested. And he's the most interesting actor/character here. The David Sackler character is so over the top and absurd, even when the actor portraying him is genuinely talented. Why did they do that? Rosario Dawson is terrific, but her character is played as the person who explains to the audience what happens on the law enforcement side. She has all of these pretty terrible scenes where she's almost talking to the audience, instead of being a pawn in this catastrophe. The two young girls, especially, are really great. The mining girl has some really interesting interactions with her (religious) parents. Both of them and Keaton's character are really the best parts of the movie.
The series does this irritating thing where they linger on the faces of characters, looking solemnly out of their eyes, in order to convey how important it is what just happened. Man and woman talk, woman says something, before the scene ends, the camera lingers on the man's face while he looks shocked in front of him. This happens constantly and it's annoying.
The music is absolutely terrible. It's this obnoxious elevator music-ish score that pollutes the entire experience.
Why a 7?
This material, the opioid epidemic, is inherently fascinating. You can't help but be fascinated, exactly because it's real and because these events are so mind-blowing. Mediocre filmmaking can't entirely ruin that. And Michael Keaton is really an amazing presence. I can just see them create movie around him and his experiences. It's such a great story to tell.
Interesting stuff, but it ain't no The Sopranos, Angels in America or Chernobyl.
I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2020)
Good news for documentary makers
The great EARONSGSK documentary has yet to be made.
It's the most fascinating crime case ever, in my opinion. The story of this real life Michael Myers, and the story of his descent into murder. And they make the documentary about the writer of some book about the case. What a mess.
I would have loved if they made it about Sacramento women of the era and the impact this case made on them. But to make it about Michelle, it just makes no sense. I love her and wish her the best, but this is literally the most crazy crime case ever. Tell us about the crime, about its impact on these communities. The viewers want to witness this case unfold, we don't want to spend 5 hours being told the story of Michelle.
It's a well-made documentary, it just approaches this case in a inappropriate manner.
Gisaengchung (2019)
Exquisite
I'll keep it short.
This is one of the two best movies I've seen this year, along with Uncut Gems.
A biting comedy, that bites a little too much towards the end. I am not a big fan of that shock conclusion. This great film didn't need shock to make it come alive.
The movie reminded me of satirical comedies such as Tootsie and Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Movies that take these interesting characters and puts them in environments that forces them to come to terms with life itself. It also reminded me of Billy Wilder. This is an old-fashioned fairly tale comedy, slapstick and all. Mr. Song is a a terrific actor and I hope that he and Adam Sandler are nominated for an Academy Award.
Uncut Gems (2019)
Exciting
It really is that good. It's one of the two best movies I've seen this year, along with Parasite. And I can't make up my mind about which is the better film. Sandler in one of the year's best, it's really true.
The directors are very exciting young filmmakers. I loved their previous film, Good Time. Their style reminds me of Steven Soderbergh's work on Out of Sight, an underrated 90s comedy crime masterpiece, and Paul Thomas Anderson's early work, as well as the Pusher crime saga from Denmark. You'll get everything from wide, high-angle shots, zoom ins, zoom outs, quick cuts, long tracks, shaking cam. It's energetic film making by two gifted filmmakers.
It's that type of film that will hold your attention every second of the way. That's really the biggest compliment I can give the film. The 130 minutes go by quick. By the time the shocking conclusion came, I wanted it to keep going. I didn't want the movie to come to its conclusion. I have seen too many movies this year where I wished I could fast forward.
And Adam Sandler is a big part of what makes everything work. He might not be the next DD Lewis, or John Malkovich, but he possesses that special king of charisma. He is such an amazing presence.
It's not a perfect film and there are aspects of the movie that I thought didn't quite work. Certain plot mechanisms and stretches of dialogue that didn't quite work with me. But in a movie that has so much going for it, that is forgivable. I do, though, believe that these filmmakers have yet to give us their best.
The Lighthouse (2019)
I dodn't like it
And I'm not saying it's a bad movie. It could be me.
Because the film is beautifully shot. It's quite something to behold. Beautiful b&w, surreal, inventive imagery. And you have these marvelous actors. Paterson is really underrated. Watch his Good Time to see just how good he is.
But in the end, what was it all for? Let me leave it at that, without giving anything away. What was it for. What am I watching, and why should I care?
And it really could be me. I'm just not into that whole suggestive, symbolism-filled kind of filmmaking. Tell me a story, grab me with inventive set-ups and scenes, give me characters that connect with me, give me some sharp dialogue. That's what I'm looking for in a movie. And I didn't find it here.