nesdon-2 Reviews

I'm Your Woman (2020)

Unique mix of action and heart

[8/10 · 20 December 2020]

I loved this film. Amazed to see so many bad reviews, likely due to a Michael Mann audience not knowing what to make of Kelly Reichardt stylings. Excellent period design, cinematography, and superb performance by Brosnahan, with a subtle script, heavy on interiority, that allows most of the action to enter without much explanation.

I loved the way it left so much of the chaos and violence off stage, and brought just enough in to validate the terror of the characters, and the way it managed to play on some strong ant-racist and feminist themes without ever commenting on them. If you're looking for Heat, walk on by, if you're patient and motherhood thrills you, you might love this as well.

Movie 43 (2013)

Most polarized reviews ever

[3/10 · 23 August 2020]

If this film had starred and been made by a middle school class, it would be a triumph. It is funny in the way farts are always funny, but the thing I couldn't quite get my head around was how it could have been made. How do you get an mostly 'A' list cast to show up for this sort of puerile sketch humor?

My guess is that there's some rich Hollywood wannabe funding some charismatic kid who got snowballing attachments based on the concept, and that folks committed to a day then were professional enough to turn in the work even after they finally saw the script.

A documentary deconstructing the development of this would be hilarious, a sort of IRL Bowfinger with stars musing on the development process and consequences of selecting material.

Emma. (2020)

Disjointed mostly charming mishmash

[6/10 · 7 March 2020]

The costumes, hair and makeup, and decoration badly upstage the performances and plot, though it still manages to retain most of Austen's commentary, nuance, and humor. The sound track is emblematic of this disunity, shifting without much rationale between the most flippant little tinklings, the sacred, and folksy. About half way through, Emma's unusually repulsive shallowness and arrogance gave way to some sympathy and insight, and my revulsion at the mise en scene surrendered to the subtle warmth of Nighy and Anya Joy' relationship. Weird disorienting experience.

Raising Dion (2019–2022)

Mix of very poor and very good elements

[6/10 · 9 October 2019]

Alisha Wainwright is the one thing that makes this show work. She is so good here, it's sad to see her have to cope with her eponymous costar's awful performance. Maybe other directors will find a way to get more out of him, and maybe he will mature, but I get whiplash from watching her authentic and naturalistic performance crash up against his cartoonish and manic gaping.

The way they draw out the often poorly executed action sequences can be painful, but some of the supporting actors, even the kids, are interesting and well done. Have to confess I was drawn in by the plot and foreshadowing, and so have watched a few episodes and will likely finish the season, despite my frequent cringing.

Ad Astra (2019)

More Malick than Bay

[9/10 · 23 September 2019]

Ignore the disappointed starfans, this is a spectacularly constructed and beautifully themed work. A pretty amazing feat to pack a subtle phenomenological treatise into what is outwardly a space opera. But the perfectly plausible and disturbing future that rushes past with barely a comment ends up a particularly effective backdrop on which to paint an exquisitely intimate portrait of the nature of being in the world

The Souvenir (2019)

Obvious and inscrutable

[4/10 · 31 May 2019]

This film seems to be trying to turn its back on every narrative tradition. It shows us so much, and lingers so long on so many shots and scenes that are utterly unilluminating of any plot or character, and leaves out almost every detail that might help us contextualize what is going on or who these people are.

I love Malick, and really appreciate the heuristic style he pioneered. I'm glad when directors don't point at everything and instead let an audience just have an experience. But I, at least, need more than was offered here, where the arcs of all the characters seeming punctuated and unmotivated, and the mise-en-scene mostly arbitrary.

I didn't find the cinematography gorgeous at all, it seemed just like whatever was there, often flat and muddy, only occasionally catching a nice bit of light.

Maybe a little spoiler here (I guess?) but the last shot reprives a repeating shot, held painfully long, that I guess was intended as chapter markings, reminiscent of the brilliant wide shots that broke up Breaking The Waves, but which seemed completely empty of any meaning, even after that final reprise.

Without 2 Swintons, this film would never have gotten a theatrical release.

Unicorn Store (2017)

Messy directing, with poor script and production values

[5/10 · 20 April 2019]

I've loved Brie Larson since US Tara, and loved Captain Marvel. Neither I nor many of the other poor reviews are misogynists defending some macho Marvel Universe (tho indeed some may be). Also, I thought her performance here was good, but her direction was obviously badly lacking.

With a fantasy script (the central problem with the film) improving dialogue is unlikely to produce good results, and I suspect a lot of this was impromptu, tho possibly because the actual scripted dialogue was poor. The dialogue needs to fully inhabit the crazy universe of the story, and the scenes need to advance the allegory, both much too meta for actors to quip out on set. This results in way too many of the scenes ending up as tedious detours from the spine of the story.

Also the production values are all extremely cheesy. Tho gotta give the wacky costumes some props. The lousy art and cinematography are most likely a result of budget, but it is one of the key roles of the director to hire talented collaborators and make sure their details support the director's vision. Often budget and scheduling limitations may require streamlining choices. Look at a low budget film like Trainspotting with a brilliant director like Danny Boyle at the helm for comparison.

First time directors generally need lots and lots of support. I have no idea why Larson didn't get it or, if offered, wasn't able to make good use of it, but however it happened, this film seemed very amateurish. One caveat, amateurish seems to be a bit of a convention these days, with other very similarly flawed messes like "Sorry to Bother You" and "Blindspotting" from "first time" directors finding acclaim. I know all of these films have their devoted fans, but all of them also play like film school projects.

The Wandering Earth (2019)

I kinda want to see this just to understand the politics of these reviews

[5/10 · 17 February 2019]

This is playing near me but has no reviews on Metacritic, my main resource for judging if I want to see a film. Almost every user review here seems like troll propaganda.

Sex Education (2019–2023)

Unique, surprisingly serious at times, take on teen sex comedy

[8/10 · 13 January 2019]

Charming show with very original vibe and heartfelt, unusual themes. Great production values and performances with some amazingly deep character and relationship dynamics. Oddly inconsistent plot beats and motivations at times, tho consistent with your average TV comedy, which this is not. One of the best parts is the musical selections which are often strange and extremely eclectic. I think most of the scathing reviews may be from the angry MGTOW/red pill crowd. As an older feminist male who is involuntarily celibate I can understand their perspective, but find their whole stance childish and self pitying. I actually think this show could help them see things from a new angle if they could open themselves to it.

The Affair: Episode #4.9 (2018) Season 4, Episode 9

Fantastic writing, acting and simplicity

[10/10 · 20 August 2018]

It's amazing how some of the best TV I've ever seen has been just two people in one room talking. The best episode of Masters of Sex was "Fight" with Sheen and Caplan, in a hotel room, supposedly talking about boxing. The best episode of Homicide was "Mercy" with Braugher and Woodard in the 'box' talking about euthanasia. This episode was a twofer, with two alternate universes, one beautiful and full of grace, one ugly and full of fear, each rendered completely and believably from the same two people inhabiting each. I found it utterly breathtaking, a testament to the prodigious talent that has graced this series.

Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Promising then ridiculous

[4/10 · 18 July 2018]

The trailers pulled out some wonderful stylistic and surreal bits, and made me hope for so much more than the film delivered. Ended up seeming like a freshman film school effort, which I guess it sort of was. Saddest part is that the clumsy effort at surrealism which had the plot going all adult swim by the end, eclipsed what are some important themic elements about class and race.

Worst of all, the production values were even more amateurish than the script. The design was garish, in your face and so lacking any naturalism that it screamed faux throughout. As an example there is an elevator interior so glitzed up that no one could possibly read as an elevator once the door closes. Then the constant use of colored accent lighting made most of the night scenes it look like an anti-drug PSA from the 80's, with the interiors flat and the exteriors even flatter.

I'm glad they're making some money so that maybe they can do better next time, as there are obviously some interesting ideas and creativity behind this project, which is also often true of other freshman film school product. But a Metacritc score of 80? Give me a break!

Tulip Fever (2017)

Not as bad as reviewers make it out

[7/10 · 9 September 2017]

I have put a lot of store in Metacritic ratings, but found their rating on this surprisingly far from mine own impression (them 37 me 71). This is rare, but then again I rarely go see movies if they rate it below 70. Stoppard is a genius, and as a production designer I can't pass up a film whose trailers show decent period design, so i had to go see it on the big screen.

The design here was indeed pretty good, a little stagy on the interiors and a bit too obvious CGI, but worth the price of admission on its own none the less. The acting is actually very good, and the script has some nice subtleties, with a clever, satisfying and unusually nuanced resolution.

Perhaps part of what turned the critics were the expectations. The budget was high, the cast renowned and everyone agrees that Stoppard is a genius, leading to some let down for what might have been. But you need to meet a piece of art where it stands and not where you hoped it might be, and this is a much better film that its reviews suggest.

Sleight (2016)

Downtrodden but world-class magician resorts to crime and betrayal. Oh yeah, and magnets can stop bullets.

[2/10 · 6 May 2017]

I tend to put a lot of store in Metacritic and IMDb scoring, and chose to see this film based on those. The acting and production values are adequate, but the story is completely preposterous. Not only does it completely disregard any notion of physics. but assigns zero value to the brilliant sleight of hand the protagonist displays, and instead shifts into unnecessary and gratuitous "hood" action. It even largely ignores its own bizarre reality. Worst of all, the protagonist seems to have no moral compass at all, willing to screw anyone without the slightest regret. I give it a two for being competently made, but the script deserves a -10. Disgusting.

Aloha (I) (2015)

Ignore the media on this one

[9/10 · 7 June 2015]

As a film maker and former film school professor, I have a lot of my students as friends on Facebook. Many of them, most notably ones of Asian descent, came out full of vitriol and condemnation of this film, many of them before they had even seen it, as did a lot of the popular media.

IGNORE THEM! This is Cameron Crowe back in form. The film in no way disrespects Hawaiian culture or ignores its aboriginal and Asian populations, in fact it celebrates them. Emma Stone as a character named Allison Ng ("My dad was half Chinese and half Hawaiian... so I'm 1/4 Hawaiian") had to be played by a white actress in that she is referencing exactly that desire of some white people to pawn themselves off as ethic. She does it marvelously.

In fact the whole cast is amazing, with a script that absolutely sparkles, especially in its frequent nods to non-verbal communication. The last, most moving and completely wordless scene is worth the price of admission. Danielle Rose Russell's performance in this scene is breathtaking, and she is completely luminous through out, even though she has only a handful of lines.

Others with only handfuls of lines who make the film really shine are John Krazinski, Bill Murray and Alex Baldwin. The three leads are all amazing, with Stone a little over the top (tho appropriate for her character) and I think this is as good a work as Rachel McAdams has ever done.

I have to admit that the plotting of the whole military contractor subplot had a few too many little deus ex machina bows tied around it, but it was all maguffin for the beautiful insights into human heart and its connections anyway. And not nearly as preposterous as the embarrassing Elizabethtown.

I put a lot of store in IMDb ratings, and I have never seen them as far off the mark as they are with this film. I am a progressive, and expect cultural respect from Hollywood, but this may be another sad case of the hidden ability for random accusations of political incorrectness to cow the media.

Snowpiercer (2013)

Pretentious ugly mess

[4/10 · 28 June 2014]

I had observed that I have always loved any film that got over 80 from meta-critic here on on IMDb. A little more generally, factoring in teen action and or crush excessiveness, that those above 7 from the public would be enjoyable. But this in-your-face preposterous allegory has caused me to rethink my rule.

I was ready to suspend disbelief through the opening VO claiming that all life was extinct, except a few humans on a train. Obviously completely ignorant of biology, tartigrades or other extremophiles, but okay, that's the premise, I'll play along. But they just stretched and stretched and stretched my suspension until, barely an hour in, it just snapped.

Then the awful, washed-out cinematography, (with the Alexa as a choice, film, at least for hand-held lowlight work like this, should get deader faster) the ugly-over-the-top gray design , the relentlessly claustrophobic, though not at all evocative (a la Das Boot), and cinematically boring interior train shots along with the excessive latex and gore just wore me down.

Then there's all the cheesy, fake-looking VFX exteriors of the train and frozen world. They did shoot some in Austria with a smidge of real snow and ice, which only managed to call out the bad CGI. This is the 21st century, for $40 million it shouldn't look like a Toho kaiju set.

The one thing that sort of worked, and I guess this may be where all those millions went, were some of the performances, most of which I bought. Chris Evans, tho' nothing too original in his typical sulk, was still effective and well-suited to the tone. Octavia Spenser kicking ass was cool, Tilda Swinton and Alison Pill playing it big for laughs and getting them (thank you), but John Hurt and Ed Harris have stronger chops than they showed here, mostly phoning in a few days work.

Okay, I'm willing to forgive a lot if they can wring a compelling theme or revelation out of the last act, as they did so well in Looper, but the climax here was as absurd and childish as all the rest. No deeper understanding of the human condition, no effort to reveal hard truths, uplift or edify, just a couple of puny chump-change reversals.

I think the whole martial arts genre has been highly over rated, and maybe that is a bit of why this has such inflated ratings. Whatever it is, go see Edge of Tomorrow instead if you're in the mood for violent sci-fi action with poor (but at least there, forgivable) plot logic.

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

Spectacular fusion of action, myth and character

[8/10 · 3 June 2012]

I loved this film! This is the first film of one of the Grimm's collections that matched my understanding of their originals. When I was little, I had a friend whose family were Polish nobility who had fled the iron curtain. He often translated Brothers Grimm stories from an ancient, German, leather-bound volume that he loved. I sometimes wondered if he was embellishing them, as the stories were so gruesome - not anything American parents would expose their children to. He relished my horror at the violence and explicit cruelty.

This film is true to that dark spirit, despite its amazing embrace of the most modern use of naturalistic, character-driven story telling. The eroticism Theron brought to Queen Ravenna, the wounded self-doubt Hemsworth brought to The Huntsman, and the innocence and soft hearted wonder Stewart managed to believably arc into a righteous fury was stunning and moving. Despite the inexperience of the writers and director, they managed this counterintuitive fusion with aplomb.

Also, I was excited when I first saw Bekmambetov's dreadful Night Watch and its use of CGI as part of the cinematic construct and not just animated character and set extensions, and I was looking forward to these techniques that I had seen used in the trailers for Snow White. Similar techniques were indeed used in this film, however submerged they were in more the hackneyed liquid-metal and drooling-beast usage, the enchanting fairyland notwithstanding.

I was most surprised by this excellent film's low ratings here on IMDb, as I put great store in IMDb ratings, which reflect the wisdom of an enlightened crowd. I tend to judge a film as excellent, regardless of what I have heard, if it is rated above 8 with over 1000 votes, a formula that has never failed me. Since the metacritic scores have been added, I have found the ratings even more useful, but looking at the 57 metacritic score and the 6.9 viewer score, I decided that this film was not going to meet the high expectations I had gotten from watching the trailer. Well, it proved my reliance on these scores as flawed, as this was one of the best films I have seen this year.