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Aftersun (2022)
Not seeing what the hype is about
Aftersun is a perfectly okay film. You could even call it good, by comparison to a lot of the films being made by bigger studios these days. There just isn't an awful lot to it.
Paul Meacal is fine. He's believable. I don't see where the Oscar nomination came out of though. (I'm writing this review a few hours before the Oscar ceremony, but I can't imagine he's going to win.)
Frankie Corio, on the other hand, does a great job, for such a young actress. She's very believable and natural throughout.
As I said, there isn't a lot to the film. The plot wanders along aimlessly. It's never made clear why we're supposed to engage with it at all. It's never made clear that the father has depression or is suicidal (if either of those apply to him). He could just as easily be struggling to connect with the daughter he doesn't live with. He could also be bipolar. We don't know, and we're not given much reason to care.
The closing few scenes are especially self-indulgent, making it seem like the writer/director wants to make sure you know she's telling her own story. There is a completely unnecessary gay relationship shoehorned in, presumably to pander to the gay audience and the 'pink pound', even though up until that moment, the indications are that the girl is straight (and since she's eleven anyway, it's a bit weird to make her sexuality relevant). It would have made much more sense just to let the film fade out, the way it would have without those scenes. In fact, all of the scenes with the girl as an adult served no purpose that wouldn't have been better left unserved.
This was a decent bit of filmmaking, but not much more. There are better options if you want to spend an hour and a half watching a film.
Pixie (2020)
Some top rate actors in secondary roles, but this is rubbish.
I like a 'black comedy' but what this is is not a 'black comedy'. What this is is a film that was probably intended to be serious at some point, but was written so badly that at some point, someone realised that it was too bad to be taken seriously and so, if they through in a few obvious jokes, they could pretend that the characters are ridiculous by design, rather than because the writer couldn't write realistic characters and/or dialogue.
Throw in the 'strong female lead' and the unnecessary gay subplot, and the only surprise is that it wasn't a film financed by Netflix directly, though Netflix is the only reason anyone is going to see it because nobody in their right mind would pay for it.
Also, in the light of Alec Baldwin's subsequent involvement in a real life shooting death on a film set, his character's flippant attitude to guns is more jarring than funny. That is not to say that it would have been funny otherwise, because his dialogue is still badly written and he doesn't seem to care much about his delivery, but in the light of subsequent events, it's particularly unsettling and takes you out of the movie.
In fact, this film is so bad that even the trivia and 'goofs' on IMDB are bad. Best avoided, even if you get it for free on Netflix.
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Good film, let down by poor dialogue
Overall, a very good film. The story, the acting, the setting are all great. I wouldn't be a big fan of Colin Farrell but he gets it exactly right here. I've seen his accent unfairly criticised by some but for me, he gets it more or less right. (Note for the non-Irish reader: Ireland has many, quite distinct accents, and that is not Farrell's real accent, even though he really does have an Irish accent, so what I meant is that he gets the new accent right, for me.) Gleeson's accent was more of his own, and slightly out of place, and Keoghan's accent let him down in an otherwise excellent performance. Kerry Condon was flawless.
The story was odd but still believable. The distant backdrop of the civil war rang true. Pat Short played the character he always plays but it worked well here.
The only real issue is the dialogue. There were too many instances of characters saying things Irish people (especially Irish people of that era) wouldn't say, and while McDonagh usually gets Ireland right, here, he's betrayed by his London upbringing, I think. It affects the suspension of disbelief, to someone actually genuinely familiar with Ireland.
That being said, non-Irish audiences will miss most if not all of that, and the film is great otherwise, so I could see some awards coming. Keoghan and Condon have to be dark horses for supporting actor/actress Oscars. Well worth a watch.
Blackout (2022)
Very poor film based on one idea some writer obviously thought was clever
Spoilers ahead, but I'll be doing you a favour. You don't want to waste your time with this.
This film was just bad. Another film whose one redeeming feature is that it ought to be an inspiration to aspiring screenwriters: if this film got made, whatever you're working on has a chance (and apparently, Nick Nolte really needs money, so you might get him to be in it too).
This film seems to be the result of some writer noticing that the term 'blackout' can be used for both memory loss, and for the electricity going out, and thinking that that was enough to base a movie script on. The fact that the loss of electricity was shoehorned in and played no important part in the plot just makes it seem both more likely that that was the case, and even more stupid that they bothered with it.
The acting is bad, the script is terrible, the plot is nonsense, and in the end, the mystery briefcase that the 'plot' supposedly centred around was just in the office of the doctor who treated the protagonist at the start. Also, it contains literally every important secret ever. It's like the writer asked a ten year old to fill in the plot holes.
The worst thing is they didn't even bother to wrap it up, so the ending is the protagonist and his wife (yes, it turned out that she really was his wife, which you should have expected because they made it seem like she wasn't from the start) running away to nowhere in particular, so it's possible they think they can get away with making a sequel. Let's hope nobody is that desperate to make a film but given that they made this one, you just can't rule it out.
Very bad film. Avoid.
Polar (2019)
Some redeeming features but overall, a poor effort
This is a film that doesn't really know what it wants to be. It features a top class lead who comes across as serious, an opponent for him who also seems serious, but then we have a top villain and a crew of goons who are outrageously comedic and farcical, and the contract is jarring to the point of being distracting.
There as various aspects about the (anti?)hero that make him an unsympathetic character too, so it's difficult to root for him at times too. We learn very little about the 'damsel in distress' either, so when she is in distress, we haven't been given much reason to care, beyond knowing that we're supposed to. None of the characters have much depth, aside from Mikkelson, but all of his depth seems hokey and artificial.
All that being said, some of the action sequences are entertaining, if unrealistically over the top, and there were a small number of plot points and elements of set-pieces I found clever, so it's not a complete dud. Definitely one to turn your brain off for.
There were also two weird cameos from people too well known to have been wasted on those cameos. The second one in particular seemed completely out of place, although he did fine with what he had. I hope he was well-paid though, just for being attached to this junk.
Overall, best avoided, but not a total write-off, if you're stuck for losing two hours you can't get back.
Svart krabba (2022)
Very Much 'By the Numbers'
Nothing obviously very bad here, but very little imagination involved. It might be a spoiler to say so, but someone ought to tell the filmmakers that setting up several obvious twists only for none of them to happen is not the same as having unexpected twists happen.
The only two surprises happen well before the end and are not very significant. Everything else is 'by the numbers'.
If there was one thing to praise, I'd say that some of the action scenes were pretty good. Most of the actors did well with what they were given. They just didn't have much to work with.
Overall, a very mediocre attempt. Not a complete waste of time, but definitely not unmissable.
Interceptor (2022)
Very Poor
Even before I discovered that this was a vehicle for Thor's wife (who's a bad actress), I thought this was bad. There's little to redeem it, really. I suppose it's entertaining in places, but mostly, it's rubbish. The acting is bad, the script is bad, the stunts are bad, lots of it doesn't make sense if you think about it at all.
Thor's cameo is a little amusing, but then it goes on for too long, and he acts it badly, not to mention that it was completely pointless anyway, and an exercise in self-indulgence on Thor's part but then, that's what the whole film is.
Makes me wish I'd commit to actually finishing a script, because if this nonsense can get made, I think I might actually have a chance.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Another Star Wars Story That Didn't Need to be Told
Yet another case of Disney exploiting Star Wars characters, fleshing out backstories that we didn't need, throwing up continuity issues at every turn, just like The Book of Boba Fett.
This one has been better, but still isn't up to much. What it did do was introduce other characters that could have been good, and could be good in the future. There's scope for an Inquisitors series, for example, or a Vader series where he doesn't cross paths with any major characters from the films. Both would likely be very dark though.
This business of taking characters already established and throwing in other established characters is a recipe for disaster every time. Want an Obi-Wan series? Leave Leia out. Leave any actual encounters with Vader out, at least until the end. Cut out the fan service. Just make a good series. This is not the way to do it. At least The Mandalorian, for its many faults, stands on its own, with minimal crossing over with the films.
A Fistful of Lead (2018)
Amateur Hour Western
I can only assume those good reviews are from relatives of the writer and director, because this was a very amateurish production. The dialogue was awful, the story might have been okay if it had been competently told (but it wasn't), and the actors all seemed like they were appearing in their first film.
The gore was gratuitous and rather than adding to the film, it just took you out of your suspension of disbelief. The comedy elements (I think they were intentional) were out of place and poorly executed. The female characters appeared to be there purely to give a nod to feminism, and to stretch the run-time a little by giving them some angry sounding lines which they did at least deliver with almost believable enthusiasm. There isn't a single likeable character.
Very poor effort. Makes me think I should try writing films. I couldn't do much worse than this.
Avoid.
Cry Macho (2021)
Clint doesn't do himself justice.
I love Clint. He's one of my favourite actors, and one of my favourite directors. That being said, this is a bad film.
The story is disjointed and makes little sense. The scenes also don't make a lot of sense individually. It's poorly edited. The dialogue is poorly written and poorly delivered. None of the main characters are likeable (though the Mexican family in the second half of the film are likeable enough). The cockfighting storyline is both pointless and adds an unnecessary layer of nastiness to both the boy's character and to the story as a whole.
If gave it three stars but really, one of those three was just for Clint himself, and it's possible that this is the worst I've ever seen him.
Clint should not have made this film. I'm caught between hoping that if this is now the best he can do, he doesn't make any more films, but also hoping it won't be his last because it would be sad for his last film to be so bad when he's done lots of much better films as both actor and director, even in the last few years of his career. Avoid.
Ghostbusters (2016)
Less bad than I expected, but still bad.
I'm not going to lie, I expected I wouldn't even make it to the end of this, and I was wrong about that, so that's a plus point right off the bat.
As for the film itself, it was poorly written, both in terms of dialogue and story, but the four actresses managed to make their characters quite likeable in spite of that. The villain was well-cast, but the actual character had no depth at all. The cameos all felt forced. All of the significant good guys in the proper ghostbusters films make some sort of appearance (even the late Harold Ramis as a bust), other than Rick Moranis (unless I missed him), but none of them made any real sense to do, other than for the sake of doing them, and Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in particular seemed like they had no interest in being there.
The ghost effects were good, in my opinion, but the behaviour and physics of the ghosts were also stupid. Basically, the whole film is a poor effort.
I hope they don't make a sequel, but if they do, I hope they hire better writers, because the actresses deserve better than the material they had to work with.
Poster Boys (2020)
Enjoyable
Enjoyable film for the most part but none of the characters are very likeable, and none of them get much of a redemption at the end either. It's a bit of fun while it lasts, some funny moments, and the actors do well with what they've been given but the characters just aren't very sympathetic.
Worth a watch.
The Last Days of American Crime (2020)
Awful stuff
Terrible. I watched an hour and twenty minutes, hoping it would do something to encourage me to keep watching, at which point I realised that there was almost as long left as I'd already watched, and turn it off.
The story is stupid (but not in a good way).
The dialogue is awful.
The acting is bad.
There isn't a single character who's even slightly likeable.
There is nothing positive to say about this film.
The only thing I can say in its defence (and it's still not a positive point) is that most of the people involved haven't made many films before or haven't made a film in a while - probably with good reason - so that might excuse how bad it is to some extent (though the director has some okay stuff on his record - I can only assume he's been in jail for a few years and now he has money problems).
If there is one positive to take from this film, it's this: if this is the standard you have to reach, anyone who wants to make a film could make one. Don't lose hope. You too could make a terrible, terrible film and still have Netflix promote it so much that people will give it a go. I imagine some people even managed to sit through the whole thing. Not many, but probably some.
Disclaimer: the last hour and ten minutes might be the finest piece of cinema ever committed to film. I didn't watch it, and I doubt I ever will, so I'll never know.
Doomsday (2008)
Awful rubbish
The intention might have been a tongue in cheek homage to Mad Max, et al. but all it succeeded in being was a bad Mad Max rip off.
Not even bad in a funny way. It's just bad.