Nadine1301 Reviews

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

No plot, no meaningfulness, disappointing :(

[3/10 · 17 November 2018]

First of all, I absolutely love the Harry Potter universe and liked the first Fantastic Beasts film. I love Newt, being such a unique and refreshing male lead and I was super excited about going to see the film. I was absolutely ready to be thrown back into this world and learn some new things about favourite characters. Saw it yesterday and left the cinema confused, disappointed and frustrated. I will try not to repeat what a lot of other people have said. There is no real plot, it's difficult to follow and even more difficult to care about any of the many characters which are being introduced and where each of their sub plots lead. The whole thing feel completely unrealistic (i know, it's a film about wizards, but it worked in Harry Potter didn't it?) and like someone has pushed a beautiful, moving story through the Hollywood action machine that caters for people with a non existing attention span and throws in an explosion every few minutes to keep them awake. More than being excited or shocked about a few reveals I felt like they are now meddling with the Harry Potter storyline just for the sake of it. The film had about 9 meaningful minutes, maybe less, and the rest was filled up with a bombardment of loud, messy and unnecessary action scenes that just didn't feel right. The subtlety that I love so much in the Harry Potter films, the feeling that this world could really exist and makes you feel all warm and home is completely extinct here. I give 1 Star to Eddie Redmayne and his amazing portrayal of a truly unique, non-stereotypical male lead character. 1 Star to Johnny Depp whose portrayal of Grindelwald (whenever he did get a little bit of screen time) was brilliant and his "speech" towards the end of the film was one of the only moments that really held my attention. And 1 star shared between a nicely acted young Albus Dumbledore and the Niffler! Who doesn't love the Niffler?

I wish the film had consisted of many more calmer, reflective moments. I could have listened to young Dumbledore for ages, I also would have enjoyed more tender moments of Grindelwald, showing his world and what really motivates him. If this had been 80% substantial character development and 20% action scenes it could have been a wonderful, moving film. Instead it's the other way round and felt like watching Godzilla who ended up in the Harry Potter world.

The Delinquent Season (2018)

Delicate & moving. So much better than the critics made it sound

[9/10 · 21 June 2018]

When I read last year that Andrew Scott and Cillian Murphy would be making a film together I got very excited, as they are both absolute favourites of mine. When I then read some online reviews after the film came out in Ireland, criticising it as boring, hugely disappointing and dull I almost didn't watch it, and how sad that would have been. I'm not entirely sure which film these critics saw, but I found it anything but boring and disappointing. Quite the contrary... I watched it about 5 days ago and it is still stuck in my head and I keep of finding myself thinking back to it. Yes, it is slow paced in places, it doesn't have crazy twists and turns every 15 minutes and if you compare it to other relationship & affair dramas it's nowhere near as shocking, but thats exactly what made it so much more interesting to me. It's so realistic! It feels exactly what I'd imagine it would feel like to have an affair, and the the way the story unfolds is extremely close to life and makes you feel exhilarated but completely uncomfortable at the same time. Yes, you can tell that the director has only directed theatre productions, which gives the film a certain spareness, but once again this makes it more unique to me. It's not overloaded with side stories and mind blowing cinematography, it gets to the point of human feelings & needs. The constant questioning of what is right and wrong, of what makes you happy and how far you're allowed to go for it, of who you are and who you want to be and the issues you might have with yourself that lead to having an affair are so well played out, so is the struggle with love vs. lust and what it all really means! At the end I felt like I really knew these people, and I deeply felt for them. It's such a small but perfect cast and such a tender and yet uncomfortable story. I personally can only very highly recommend it and will definitely watch it again.

The Party (I) (2017)

Smart, funny and incredibly enjoyable

[9/10 · 9 November 2017]

I hardly ever write reviews, but for this film I feel the need to do so.

I saw "The Party" in cinema last night and enjoyed it a lot, as did my friend and the whole rest of the cinema, judging by the brilliant atmosphere it created. I loved the trailer already, which reminded me a little of Roman Polanski's "Carnage", and it did indeed have a similar feel to it. It feels like you're watching a play, and I personally love very sparse films with few characters, one location and an absolutely brilliant cast. It also shows you what amazing things can still be done on a low budget, as long as you have a brilliant story and actors who can carry it. Interesting choice to make the film black and white as well.

Congratulations to Sally Potter for creating something so utterly enjoyable, funny and inspiring (for a fellow film maker like me), wrapped up in a perfect length of just over an hour. I love those moments in film where it feels so utterly wrong to laugh about what you're just seeing, so you do some nervous inwards giggling until your seat neighbour bursts out laughing and the whole cinema erupts :) This film has a lot of those moments. Amazing work, as always, by Cillian Murphy, who has been my driving force to go and see this film and then made me absolutely love the whole rest of the cast as well! Oh and these last 10 minutes...my goodness :) Go and see it!

Passengers (I) (2016)

Amazing first half, disappointing second half

[6/10 · 12 September 2017]

*Contains Spoilers*

This is a really difficult review to write actually. I watched the first half of Passengers the other day and was absolutely hooked. Couldn't stop thinking about it for the next two days and couldn't wait to get the chance to watch the rest, which I did with my partner, and I was so disappointed by the second half, it felt almost like a completely different film to me.

So regarding to the first half, I absolutely loved the idea and the personal dilemma the main character is going through. It's a plausible issue as well, and it's very well acted by Chris Pratt. I thought this film had a lot of potential and could potentially have gone into a very interesting direction. Instead, it then does a little bit of a U-turn and went about as mainstream as it gets. And I'm not saying this because I hate mainstream films and need twists and turns every second, or because I only watch super arty films which I don't, but because it got so utterly predictable and cheesy that I found it hard to watch after a while.

Overall Passengers was definitely not a waste of time and very entertaining in parts, but being a filmmaker myself I just couldn't stop thinking about the immense potential this film had and all the ways they could have gone with it, apart from choosing a very very stereotypical, Hollywood romance route.

Bonus points though for acting on both sides, for stunning cinematography and effects and for the bar scenes which really reminded me of "The Shining".