From all Chazelle's movies this one is in my opinion his worst. Whiplash was predictable, LaLa Land started great but lost track after the opening sequence, First Man was acceptable but not great. Why Babylon received raving reviews is quite beyond my understanding. It's too long, could easily been cut to 2 hours although I doubt this would have made it a better movie. Characters lack depth and there's hardly any fundamental cohesion throughout the story. No excitement, humorless and self-righteous are the qualifications I would rate this movie. Best parts of Babylon were the Singin' In The Rain fragments.
Reviews
6 Reviews
Normal People
(2020)
Brilliantly acted and bonus points for...
10 September 2021
It's almost impossible to add anything substantial to all the raving reviews here. This series is a must see. Sometimes and especially when the two main characters are together the tensions and emotions are almost palpable from the screen. Bonus points for Marianne and Connell for not having tattoos!
The Cook of Castamar
(2021)
Mediocre story but acceptable
18 July 2021
The main reasons I'll continue to watch La Cocinera are the photography, the wardrobes, the props, the sets and the landscapes. Most actors try to do their best but storywise this is a weak attempt to create an historic series like The Tudors or The Borgias. There's too much coincidence, too many unclear motives, too many unrelated subplots and too many actors whose parts and appearances are enigmatic in the line of the story.
Mare of Easttown
(2021)
Overrated
1 June 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Before the launch on tv Mare received rave reviews from critics. Based on these reviews I decided to give this show a try. After finishing the series last night I can only say I was disappointed. True, Winslet was superb but that alone didn't save a complicated murder case story that in the end left so many threads unanswered. After episode 3 I even doubted to continue watching but part 4 seemed to pick up the pace and continued to grow up until ep. 6. The last part however was maybe the weakest of all with a fabricated plot twist and overall weak characterizations.
Mank
(2020)
Well made but disappointing.
7 December 2020
Technically spoken Mank is a well made movie. Excellently shot in b/w, good production values, well directed. As someone who loves movies of that particular Hollywood era I was truly looking forward to Mank. But to my great disappointment the story never got a grip on me. The flashbacks didn't help either as there was no relation to the main story IMO. The main story in itself, Mank's co-writing for Welles' Citizen Kane, was also not very well developed. We see and hear Welles a couple of times but never became clear what he expected of Mank and/or what Welles share in constructing the script was. Another problem with Mank is that if you're not familiar with the Hollywood and the studio system of that day and age you'll never get an idea what the story is all about. I expected a movie maybe similarly told as Sunset Boulevard. I saw 2 hours of loose events glued together around a binge drinking script writer who happens to be partly responsible for writing the script of one of the greatest movies. Citizen Kane deserved better...
City of Salt
(2020)
Ratings dropped while watching
9 August 2020
When downloading this movie from one particular site it was rated 8.4 Then I looked it up on IMDB where it was rated 7.3 Right after watching the movie and adding it to my list I noticed its rating dropped to 6.4 So in just 2 hours this movie lost 2 full points and I'm pretty sure it doesn't have reached its lowest rating. The fast dropping didn't really surprise me as there was terribly bad acting especially during the first half. Plot developments were badly introduced and lacked any sense of involvement in the story. To make the disaster complete, during the last half the plot developed so unlikely that my idea was that some amateur script writer was hired to complete an already murky story with shallow characters. See it if you have some 2 hours left on a rainy day. Otherwise skip it. You won't miss much.
Tell Your Friends