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Score: A Film Music Documentary (2016)
Absolutely Everything I Love
Film scores have been my favorite genre of music since I was in junior high, so this is naturally a documentary that strikes a chord (ha) with me. But my love for this goes so far beyond just that, and that's because it's basically a compilation of everything I have ever loved in my life. So, basically, this review is extraordinarily subjective and you might not gain anything of value from it at all, but here we are.
Yes, there isn't nearly enough focus on Howard Shore's score for Lord of the Rings, but hey, at least it's there. And there's even a brief clip of Harry Potter as well. But you know what this does have?
The score from Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. Of all the "new" films they could've featured in that segment, they had Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. One of my favorite movies of all time.
And then, when they introduce Danny Elfman, they play "Weird Science" by Oingo Boingo, my favorite band in the history of the world. And they give Danny Elfman his proper credit.
And THEN, we immediately transition into Thomas Newman, who is my absolute favorite composer. But we don't just transition into Thomas Newman; we transition into The Shawshank Redemption, another of my very favorite movies in the world. We go from Oingo Boingo and Danny Elfman to The Shawshank Redemption and Thomas Newman, and if that isn't something taken right from my soul, I don't know what is.
There are just enough little things that keep me grinning the whole way through. The composer spotlights are delightful, the explanations of the process are fascinating, the psychology is super intriguing, and all the scores playing throughout are simply wonderful. And every time I watch it, I feel like I notice more and more because I've found so many new scores since the last time and can appreciate more of the composers each viewing.
It's by no means a perfect documentary. It kind of jumps around a lot, and honestly, they never go as deep as I always wish they would. And yet, I never feel anything but pure elation while watching this. This is absolutely everything to me.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
My Fourth Favorite Movie of All Time
And that's not an exaggeration.
I genuinely adore this movie. Even though this isn't really like any of my other favorite movies, I just can't get enough of it. And I'll describe to you in detail exactly why I love it so much.
For one thing, I think the story is amazing. It's definitely the most interesting out of the Mission: Impossible franchise, but I also am just so captivated by it. The stakes are so high, and it's gripping and tense, even after thirty-five viewings (also not an exaggeration). I love how smoothly everything flows and how well we understand exactly what's going on and why it's happening.
I absolutely love the characters. Benji Dunn is honestly one of my favorite characters in the history of film (not just because of my raging crush on Simon Pegg), and Ethan, Luther, Brandt, and Ilsa all hold special places in my heart as well. And though I love them in all the other movies in the franchise as well, there's something different about them all in this one, like every one of them truly comes into their own. When I think of Luther, this is the Luther I think of. When I think of Ethan, this is the Ethan I think of.
It also just looks fantastic. Every scene is so visually distinct, and yet, there's a clear theme running through all of them. I usually hate the way desert scenes look in movies, but this film actually makes them pretty. You just truly feel the movement between locations.
Though the score from Fallout is my favorite of the franchise, this one is a close second, especially because of the recurring "Nessun Dorma" motif. "A Matter of Going" is one of my favorite scores ever. There's just such a nice balance between the grand, epic pieces and the more subtle ones.
Speaking of balance, I love the tone of this one. I hold both Ghost Protocol and Fallout dear, but Rogue Nation manages to blend what I love about them into one: there's some of that lighthearted comedy and banter we got in Ghost Protocol, but there's also the grittier intensity of Fallout at play as well. It's just a perfect combination.
And, of course, the action is simply amazing. No matter how many times I watch this, I still get a thrill in my heart watching Ethan cling to the outside of an airplane or hold his breath for an astonishing amount of time. Every action piece is engaging and feels different from all the others.
The misdirection is awesome. The clever problem-solving is awesome. "Nessun Dorma" is awesome. This movie is awesome. It holds a special place in my heart, especially since I really grew attached to this movie right before starting college, so there's a nice little nostalgic feel to it; but I also just think this is a wonderfully made film. I never get tired of it, and I think I never will.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Words Are Inadequate
I wish I could properly convey through words just how insanely life-changing this movie was for me. Because I can say that this was the first thing in four years to break my Harry Potter obsession, but that doesn't seem to do it justice.
I had never anticipated that I would fall in love with this trilogy the way I did, even after watching the first two movies. But this one was different. As I sat there and watched the characters change and grow, as I watched them make sacrifices for each other, as I watched them continually decide to just be brave for the sake of doing the right thing...I was so in love. I was in love with all of it.
But the moment that sealed the deal for me was the lighting of the beacons. As Howard Shore's score swelled up into the most beautiful, epic thing I would ever hear in my life, I knew I would never be the same. I knew that everything in my life had just changed for the better, because no world could be that terrible if music like this could still be created. I sat there and felt my soul moving in a way it had never moved before, and I just shook my head and said, "Wow. I love this movie."
As the years have gone in, this movie has only come to mean more to me. I can appreciate the nuances of the characters and their decisions better, I can feel something about the cinematography of it all, I can recognize how absolutely astounding the action is, I actually cry because I'm no longer a prideful thirteen year old who thinks crying in a movie is for babies. But when it comes down to it, my love for this movie is found in every frame, in every glance, in every note, in every movement, in every angle, in every word. It fulfills every need in my heart, no matter the circumstances.
If you ever watch this with me, you'll just have to accept that I'm going to quote every second of it. You might see me cry, you might not, depending on how my week's been going. But I will definitely tune out literally everything else going on when the beacons are lit.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (2011)
Could Not Love It More
This is, without a doubt, my favorite movie of all time. And maybe this review is entirely unhelpful for anyone else because the reasons for it being my favorite movie are so subjective that I can't imagine they'd be useful for anyone else at all, but I have to explain myself anyway.
It certainly helps that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is my favorite book of all time, and has been such since I was nine years old. Seeing the story I'd grown to love with all my heart finally reach its conclusion in epic, beautiful, emotional, awesome ways just spoke to me, and even though I've read plenty of objectively better books since then, they can never replicate the feelings in my heart that this book gave me. I couldn't wait to see how they'd bring those scenes to life in the movie.
I was absolutely blown away. My expectations were sky high, and they were still surpassed by miles. I was eleven years old, and I sat there in that dark theater dressed in my Gryffindor robe and clutching my plastic wand, staring at the screen in front of me with the widest, awestruck eyes. It wasn't exactly like the book, but I didn't care. It was Hogwarts. It was Harry, Ron, and Hermione. It was the magic I'd fallen in love with, right there in front of me. It was dark and serious. It was sad. It was so tense, even though I knew how it would all end. It was perfect.
Alexandre Desplat's score is absolutely magnificent. Though Thomas Newman is my favorite composer and though Howard Shore's "The White Tree" from The Return of the King is my favorite score of all time, the score for this movie is my absolute favorite overall soundtrack ever. Hearing "Lily's Theme" during the opening made me instantly fall in love with whatever else might follow. That somber tune of "Statues" and "Courtyard Apocalypse" made me feel things I had never, ever, EVER felt in a movie before, and I was humming it to myself for months afterwards.
It is not a perfect film. It is not a perfect book adaptation. But it is a story that has meant something to me every single year of my life since I saw it for the first time. I think I love it for different reasons now than I did when I was eleven; or maybe it's just that my love for those reasons has matured. Either way, it never fails: whenever I watch this movie, I want to cry during every single second of it. Sometimes out of joy, sometimes out of sadness, sometimes out of pure nostalgia, and sometimes just because I'm feeling so much emotion that there's no other way to express it.
There is nothing like the feeling I get when the statues come to life to protect the school. There is nothing like the feeling I get watching Harry decide to make his sacrifice. And there is nothing like the feeling I get when he finally defeats Voldemort and gets that smallest little smile on his face. Just those three things alone are enough to rocket this into my number one spot, but every single scene in this movie has more than enough merit.
When I left the theater with my dad on opening night, he asked me, "Well, is that your new favorite movie?" And my dazed response was, "That's my new top five favorite movies." And you know what? I think eleven-year-old me was onto something.
Gisaengchung (2019)
Extremely Disappointing (But Still Good)
I'll be the first to admit that much of my lack of enthusiasm for this film is totally my own doing. When this first came out and won Best Picture and everything, I was determined to not have anything spoiled, so that meant I have avoided EVERYTHING about this movie since late 2019/early 2020. But I still constructed this whole idea of what it was in my mind, and because of that, I was far more interested in the story I'd created than what was actually on display. And like I said, that's one hundred percent my bad.
But that's not the only reason this was so disappointing to me. The biggest detractor was the characters. I honestly didn't really like any of them, and the more tolerable ones were still not the kind of characters I want to root for. I had great empathy for Ki-taek and his family, but I didn't like them. It was kind of fun at first to see them dupe this overwhelmingly oblivious rich family, but as soon as I actually started to think about it, it made me uncomfortable. I know it's satire and everything, but seriously, why are we punishing the people who didn't do anything wrong? Why send the driver and the housekeeper to potentially face the same situation you yourselves are so desperate to get out of? Don't get me wrong, I'm not on the side of the rich family either; they had plenty of issues. But it felt like the movie was trying to make excuses for Ki-taek and his family when they didn't deserve it. I mean, seriously, kicking the housekeeper down the stairs? Tying up her husband even when he begs to just keep living in the bunker? I just couldn't even pretend to be on their side.
Ki-jung's death also really bothered me, since they'd gone out of their way to mention earlier that she seems to "fit in" with this lifestyle. So...was that her punishment? Because she could take this lifestyle in such stride, she ended up dead? Because she could be so easily seen as part of this rich life, she had to end up suffering? Maybe I'm looking too much into it, but either way, I didn't like it.
And maybe it's as simple as it just comes down to the fact that I might not be the target demographic for this film. Who knows?
I thought the cinematography was great and the writing was excellent, as well as the acting. I absolutely won't tell anyone not to watch it, and I might even recommend it. But overall, I was just really expecting a very different story (my own fault) and more relatable characters. I wanted so badly to give this at least an 8, but I honestly haven't been this disappointed in an "objectively great" film in a very long time. I'm glad that so many people adore it, but it's not for me.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
A Solid Contender for My Least Favorite Movie
The charm of the original Pirates movie is that it knew when to own the silliness and when to take itself seriously. There's a nice balance where you go, "Yeah, the filmmakers knew that this is a goofy premise, making a movie based off a ride," but there are also plenty of parts that make you go, "Oh, that's actually a really cool concept/scene/character/etc!" Dead Man's Chest took itself more seriously, but not enough to be unwatchable. I like it significantly less than the first one, but I don't hate it.
This movie, however, is truly, truly awful. I don't know how I've watched it three times because I sincerely hate it. By this point, they've fully committed to trying to make this serious, but then that makes the goofy parts seem so out of place and unbearably cheesy. Watching Jack Sparrow have these moments where miniature Jack Sparrows are walking on his shoulders and giving him advice could've been kind of fun in the first movie, but here, it not only doesn't make sense, it actively takes away from the scenes. And that's just one example. All the jokes feel so out of place that they ruin any semblance of atmosphere.
I like Will and Jack in the first two films, but in this one, I despise them. Will is unnaturally sour all the time and makes decisions that just don't make sense with what we've come to expect from his character, and Jack just feels like unnecessary comic relief, except that I'm never relieved to see him.
I've always hated Elizabeth, so everything they do in this movie to make her out to be this ultra-cool pirate lady is absolutely insufferable. I will give her credit, though, for being perhaps the only consistent character throughout the series, though it pains me to give Elizabeth Swann credit for anything.
Pretty much everyone else is boring, forgettable, annoying, or all three, and at this point, the only two characters for whom I feel any semblance of positive emotions are Barbossa and Norrington: both of whom, I remind you, were the principle antagonists of the first film. I may not be a screenwriter, but that definitely doesn't feel right.
It doesn't help that this movie is so long. I'm not someone who instantly hates a movie for being long (I'm in love with all three Lord of the Rings movies, for goodness' sake), but there has to be a reason for such length. There is no reason for this to be three hours long. There are so many subplots and side quests and characters that really just don't need to exist, but they're here anyway, and why? Nobody knows.
Making Davy Jones a secondary villain to Cutler Beckett is a dumb decision. Making Tia Dalma the physical incarnation of the goddess Calypso is a dumb decision. Killing off Sao Feng after he does pretty much nothing is a dumb decision. Making Jack Sparrow cast his vote for Elizabeth Swann, who has little to no pirate experience and is an annoying protagonist, instead of Hector Barbossa, who has actual brains in his head and decades of pirate experience, is one of the dumbest decisions I have ever seen in a movie. Killing and then resurrecting Will so he can take over the Flying Dutchman instead of letting Jack do it is unbelievably dumb.
If this movie had just dedicated itself one way or the other on the silly/serious scale, it could have been at the very least palatable. But as it is, it's honestly one of the hardest movies I've ever had to sit through, and somehow, I keep having to sit through it. It gets worse every time. Literally the only thing of value here is Hans Zimmer's score, but honestly, it isn't worth it.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Perfection--And I Don't Say That Lightly
I think I love this movie so much because everything completely works for me. I love the story of keeping hope alive in the midst of despair. I love the characters and the ways they decide to change. I love Thomas Newman's music with all my heart. I see so much of myself in Andy, it's crazy.
This is a movie that feels like everything had to land just right in order for it to be lauded the way it is today. Just the right actors, just the right director, just the right cinematographer, just the right music, just the right script... It all combines into this beautiful whole. It's a movie that doesn't seem like it would be all that special, and yet, it is so full of emotion and thoughtfulness and meaning that it speaks to people everywhere of all different backgrounds and experiences. It touches souls.
I watched this for the first time in August 2019, and I was instantly in love. I thought about it nearly every day in some way or another. And when COVID came around and flipped my life upside down, somehow, this was the movie that kept me going. I'd only seen it once, but it had lit a fire in my heart that no darkness could overwhelm. No matter how difficult things got, all I had to do was remember how it felt to watch this movie the first time, and suddenly, things wouldn't seem so suffocating. Just knowing that The Shawshank Redemption existed was enough to keep me going.
I love it, I love it, I love it.
Always (1989)
Not Terrible, But Not Great
I agree with the overarching sentiment that this is not one of Spielberg's best films (though I haven't seen very much of his stuff, so that might not be fair for me to say). However, I do think that people are too hard on it. The story was interesting, and it was cool to see characters in a profession that I've never seen in a movie before.
I think the biggest problem here is the characters, specifically Pete. He just wasn't likable at any point in the story, which is unfortunate because he's the one we're stuck with throughout the runtime. Dorinda and Al were fun, but they had their fair share of irritating moments; and everyone else was totally boring or forgettable or both. When Ted was introduced at the beginning and was just being kind of shy and sweet, I thought, "Oh, this is promising," but then he ended up being one of the flattest characters I've ever seen in a movie.
This movie could have been leagues better if they'd spent more time developing Ted's personality and less time showing Pete being a jerk to everybody as a ghost. Just that little thing could have vastly changed how I felt about this film. As it stands, though, this is just totally adequate. I don't regret watching it once, nor would I necessarily dissuade anyone from seeing it, but the chances of a rewatch for me are very, very low.
Elvis (2022)
What Works Here Really Works...
...and what doesn't work still manages to hit most of the time.
The acting in this really was just excellent. I knew full well that I was being manipulated to feel certain ways about certain characters, but I didn't even care because it was just done so well. Every character was just perfectly portrayed. The visuals were beyond stunning, and I liked the contrasts between the crazy fast-paced scenes and the quieter, more muted ones. They were immensely effective, but especially so because of the juxtaposition of some of them.
But, of course, it isn't without fault. It's very long, which isn't an immediate turn-off for me, but I will admit that it reached a certain point that I went, "Okay, this HAS to be over soon, right?" and learned that there was still a hefty portion left. I don't think any scenes were unnecessary or frivolous (though maybe I'd feel differently upon a rewatch), but plenty of the scenes were longer than necessary. That honestly might be the only thing keeping me from giving it an 8. I also had mixed feelings on the music. Some of it mixed with the modern stuff quite well, and others...well, others not so much. But even so, it was never overly awful to me.
Overall, I have no problem saying this is a good movie. Heck, one of these days, I may even say it's great. I enjoyed myself immensely, and not just because Elvis has played a part in my life since before I can even remember. It was a solid story, and I didn't feel like I was watching the usual musician biopic, and honestly, that's a very high compliment coming from me. My only hope going into it was that "If I Can Dream" would play, and that wish was granted in the most spectacular way I could imagine. I'd definitely watch this again, though maybe not for a little while.
The Village (2004)
Quite Possibly the Most Romantic Movie I've Ever Seen
I genuinely love this movie, and I think I love it more every time I watch it. The story is super interesting, the characters are wonderfully real and likable, the use of color is fantastic, the score is GORGEOUS, and the suspense is just enough to still freak me out, even after multiple viewings. I truly adore the central romance, and I'm serious when I say this might be the most romantic movie I've ever seen.
And I do think that this movie is at least a little bit scary. But it isn't because of what happens on screen, for the most part; it's because of uncertainty. This is a movie that relies on scarcity to get its point across. There is so much "show, don't tell" and so much that you have to work out for yourself. You're given just enough information to feel that you're in the story, but you just don't know enough of what's going on to feel comfortable. Even if the characters know what's happening, that same knowledge isn't often communicated to the audience, so you're left there with the tension of both dread and the unknown. It's so well done.
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Definitely Worth a Watch
The first time I watched this movie, I didn't think it was anything special. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't come away from it feeling...anything? But I rewatched it several years later, this time with some more knowledge of Shakespeare in hand, as well as a bit of familiarity with Tom Stoppard's writing, and it was much, much more entertaining at that point. I totally understand the popular sentiment that this movie was totally overrated and won awards it shouldn't have, but I also think it's unfairly judged because of that nowadays. Is the acting the greatest I've ever seen in my life? No, but it wasn't bad at all; in fact, some of it was quite good. Are the story and characters Oscar-worthy? Maybe, maybe not, but either way, they still have merit. I don't know, I think this movie is really well-made with some stunning visuals, some really witty humor, some subtly clever references to Shakespeare, and an interesting enough story that the film as a whole shouldn't be given so much crap, especially now that we're almost twenty-five years after its release. It isn't for everyone, but it does surprise me that some people find nothing of value here.