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socialsunshine-12645
Reviews
Men (2022)
This movie was... a lot.
Imagine if you put together the lingering, gratuitous shots of macabre, gruesome, and unsettling imagery thats typically used in an ari aster film with the really odd and allegorical type of direction that was in the film Mother, but then made the final product into a commentary about the patriarchy and that was the movie, basically.
Definitely once I understood the film more of a metaphor rather than a literal storyline, it was easier to digest. My interpretation is that film analyzed the many faces of the patriarchy/gender oppression. Even though misogyny can take on many different forms (you had a literal physical/emotional abuser, a man in a position of power/law enforcement, the bystanders, the fussy "manchild", and vicar who use religion as a means of manipulation/perversion) they are all related. When they weren't literally terrorizing her, they were gaslighting and shaming her.
It also seemed like this all happened in her mind/represented her mental state rather than actually taking place because there were a couple of scenes where she was shown trying to escape the situation but then the scene would switch to show not making any actual progress? Not to mention she literally confronted (and presumably "killed") her dead husband at the end, which seemed to release her. Idk the concept made sense but the execution was strange.
Honestly I feel like the amount of gore/body horror used took away from the message, everyone was more shocked than impressed or analytical when the lights came on at the end of the movie.
Candyman (2021)
Complicated feelings about the film
First off I will say I like the fact that this franchise has really given us an opportunity to see Black horror on the mainstream/big screen. Most western horror movies are based on Eurocentric based fears/concepts and only showcase white people (with the exception of the ONE Black friend who gets killed first in the group). Films like Candyman give African Americans/Black people a narrative and represents the fears/horrors that are real to us. That being said, I had an issue with the movie's message. Like Candyman is created because of the white supremacy/violence that has been perpetuated in this country for the past several centuries. Since he is an entity that's a culmination of Black suffering, why does he mainly terrorize his own community?? I don't understand why this character would not use his persuasion to infiltrate the leaders of the carceral system so that he can put an end to the police/corrupt legal system. What does he gain from primarily staying within poor Black neighborhoods and mostly killing adolescents who simply want to play a "game"/test a superstitious tale? I feel like the message was lost because he had no real motive for most of his killings.
Also, honestly I hate that every Black film/series has to include police shootings. It's overdone and it always feels rushed/out of place in the story. Like there are other ways that Black people suffer/experience racism, so why is the focus ONLY on that? Seems like a cheap shot...
Additionally the film had weird pacing. Like on one hand it feels like the story was going by really fast without any real background or buildup, but at the same time so many plot points felt so drawn out and slow. The main character wasnt given enough depth for me to care too much about what happened to him. Also, it was obvious from the start that he was going to become the next candyman, so there was no real suspense.
Lastly, the movie kind of went back on its own rules. In some death scenes everyone who was in the room/vicinity with the person who summoned CM was murdered but in other cases, only the summoners died. Also, i dont get how CM was setting the main character up to be his successor, yet he tried to have him killed as an infant??
In conclusion the film was ok but I think a bit more thought should have been put into the plot.
A Quiet Place Part II (2020)
Why did they make a second one
This was a really unnecessary sequel. First of all we didn't learn anything more about the aliens or why they came here. If those questions were answered the movie would've been a bit better/worth watching.
Additionally, these were some of my biggest issues with the film:
1. First of all why didnt the family just move next to the waterfall or to places that were naturally noisy so that they didn't have to live in complete silence? Yes there was the issue of shelter but they could have honestly built a makeshift shelter without being discovered because of how noisy the area was
2. Why didnt they wear shoes at all, especially if they were walking a lot in areas that they weren't familiar with? Everyone kept on stepping on stuff and getting hurt when literally some injuries could have just been avoided by not being barefoot!
3. Why does everyone keep splitting up?? It's like they didn't learn anything at all from the events in the first film, which supposedly took place within a day of the second film.
4. Why does the daughter ALWAYS do the most. Like in each film she is so set in her ways to the point that it endangers literally everyone and no one checks her on it.
5. Why did the island people make the announcement of the safe haven so cryptic?? Like just say on the radio that you have a colony off the coast and just inspect the boats of survivors as they come in? I feel like so many people could have found safety if they just announced where they were, it's not like the aliens would understand??
6. Another thing with the island, it's really weird that they had almost no safety measures in place at all. Like one alien wiped out nearly the entire town and its infrastructure within moments?? No weapons, no training/preparation, just vibes ig.
In conclusion, they could have kept this sequel. There was no actual storyline progression and the characters were so annoying that I didn't really care what happened.
Don't Breathe 2 (2021)
Please, let this be the last one
What's interesting about this franchise is that in each addition the writers manage to do a poor job at making characters multidimensional/flawed, but human. In each movie they pit the old man protagonist against a group of random people and I guess the viewers are meant to see both sides of the story, but I never do. With the exception of the children and animals, everyone in these films are objectively terrible. Because of this I dont find myself rooting or sympathizing with anyone, which then makes the storyline devoid of any true value.
Also why does this man choose to live in the most desolate part of the city, especially since he is someone who is elderly and blind. Like why not just move into a regular neighborhood where you wouldn't always be the target of random crime? Also what's the point of adopting the little girl just to keep her isolated and not give her any real childhood?
And dont get me started on the meth making, human organ harvesting people. Like first of all their motivation was so unbelievable. You go around the city and kill people just to take their hearts and hope that it'll be a match for the one group members wife?? Also did they really think that a young child's heart would work for a fully grown woman? And even if it did, didn't she have severe lung and throat scarring (and probably a lot of other organ issues) so the heart wouldn't even do her any good! Like all of them truly lacked common sense.
In conclusion, hopefully no more sequels or prequels are made for this franchise, it needs to end.
Time Trap (2017)
What was the point of this film??
This movie was kind of everywhere. In the beginning it had horror movie vibes and then it turned into a weird off brand science fiction film? I wish it would have just stayed with one genre honestly because it didn't do either well enough. And the eerie, suspenseful scenes that randomly popped up in the story were huge let downs because didn't build up to anything!
Also, I know that everything in this film was fictional but in my opinion too many different unbelievable things occurred within the storyline. Like you have the cave system in which time moves so slowly that it's basically frozen in time, then you have the cave water that is not only the source of the time slowing but is also a healing pool that can literally revive people from death. Then you also have cave people from thousands of years ago and aliens from the distant future all interacting with people from our time simultaneously. And at the end you have the main characters taken up by aliens who are hundreds of thousands of years removed from our civilization just to make them celebrities???
In the end I didn't care about what happened to any of the characters because they were all so dumb, the acting was so poor, and because none of the deaths were truly permanent! If there's no actual risks being taken by the protagonist that kind of defeats the point of the story.
Euphoria (2019)
This show had a lot of missteps
This show was,,, a lot.
I will say the acting was really good and so was the cinematography and soundtrack! Now to everything wrong with the show:
First of all, it had too many on screen (graphic) sex scenes that were portrayed by characters who were supposed to be teens, even weirder were the scenes that featured teens and adults being together. This show is obviously *meant* for adults so this type of content was definitely a way to legally make teens appealing to adults/sexualize late adolescent girls.
Second of all, I know that some teenagers go through a lot and are forced to make hard decisions and be in adult situations bc of their environment, family, etc but with that being said, almost all of the middle classed suburban teens in this show were living lives that were so outrageous. Everyone seemed to casually take extremely hard drugs all the time and even when they had a close family, their parents seemed to be completely oblivious to this? Also, the show literally had one girl become a pornhub star who made thousands of dollars a month from subscribers and videos?? And her seemingly normal family never found out about it? Her situation actually leads me to my next point:
This show really had Kat's character "reclaim" her autonomy and body by,,, letting men basically use her body for sex (she didn't enjoy the sex she was having but the show made it seem like she found some type of gratification from letting men get off on her)? And then by selling adult content online?? And it would be one thing if the show made it clear that she was definitely engaging in dangerous and maladaptive behaviors in order to cope what happened to her, but they twisted it to make her seem like she was some sort of modern feminist icon or something! Like this is in no way me shaming her character bc she was basically a child, I actually rooted for her the most bc I can relate to some of what she went through, this is really me shaming the producers/ writers for thinking any of this was ok. Also, I completely support sex workers, so with that being said, this 16 yr old engaging with sex work is ILLEGAL so it should not be glamorized at all.
My next point is that the show ofc used the tired trope of the big time homophobic/transphobic antagonists actually being gay themselves, which is at very least a tired concept but at its worst very dangerous/not representative of most irl homophobes' motives for terrorizing the LGBTQ community. Also, they tried to make us sympathize with the guy who went around abusing and terrorizing everyone instead of having him take actual accountability for all of the trauma he caused.
Lastly, this was another show that wants to be "progressive" but is literally like any other cable show tbh. It covered some of the most cliched archetypes, including; the abusive jock who is angry bc he has daddy issues, the mean "hot" girl who is actually suffering but doesn't tell anyone cause she doesn't want to be vulnerable, the fat girl who obsesses over her weight/who's entire personality is self hate, the other jock who's the "nice guy" (but he really wasnt though), the "promiscuous" girl whose main personality trait is having sex? but is later revealed to be a good person (bc ofc the girl with a large body count has to have a heart of gold or she wont gain sympathy from viewers), and the main girl who is honestly not the most interesting character but since it's her show you hear more about her story than you care to. They also followed the tradition of not casting any main character, adolescent Black girls who were darker than a paper bag/ weren't biracial, so there's that...
Overall, this show had a lot of potential but they made so many bad missteps. Instead of this show being a coming of age story they made it into a drama that glamorized really harmful behaviors and sexualized teenagers instead of having them go to therapy.
The Handmaid's Tale (2017)
This story centered the wrong people
Okay so I only got through 1.5 seasons of this show and I just couldn't continue. First of all, I cannot stand Offred. She's literally the least interesting "handmaid" the show had to offer and she makes some of the worst, nonsensical decisions. Also, I didn't like how the show basically took the sexual/reproductive slavery that has been historically disproportionately experienced by Black and indigenous women and made it into the plight of mainly middle classed white woman. Like in a world like that one, truthfully poor women and women of color, especially BIWOC, would experience enslavement and lack of rights before anyone else. But even with all that, what definitely left a bad taste for me when they painted Luke's ex wife (a Black woman) as being the aggressor/ enemy when she confronted him for having an affair with Offred. Like it's little micro aggressions like these that perpetuate certain stereotypes about Black women. In conclusion, this show missed a lot of marks, and the biggest one was centering white women in a story that was a reality for many woc for hundreds of years. This isnt the 60s where we have to read between the lines and different types of white ppl have to be the stand ins for diversity metaphors...
Beastars (2019)
This was just weird
Beastars definitely had a lot of potential but it fell short after the first couple of episodes. First of all, the main character, Legoshi, is so annoying. Like him having some sort of "predator guilt" is his entire personality, and it's so bad that even the other animals start to resent him for it. Like from what I watched, he never seemed to acknowledge the fact that he is a murderer? But at the same time he has this holier than thou mentality that he uses to judge other predator animals. Also, Haru obviously has a good sense of smell (she's a rabbit) so like why didn't she smell Legoshi's scent and immediately recognize it as the one of the animal that attacked her that one night? Also, all the prey animals are really nonchalant and seemingly not worried about the sudden increase of their kind being abducted and murdered, not only on the school campus but in the city as well??
Lastly, the whole show had such a creepy and voyeurish vibe. Like sexual dimorphism was heavily emphasized and fetishized to the point that I couldn't finish the show. Also seeing gratuitous shots of (humanized) late adolescent animal bodies was too much. Like every episode was either referencing Haru's sexuality/"promiscuity" or showing her in sexual scenes that she obviously didn't consent to. Not only were there too many of these scenes, they didn't even add to the plot whatsoever- purely fan service.
In conclusion, if the show would have continued with the main/initial plot of a murder mystery, with occasional side stories that looked at life through the lenses of different characters, it would have been really interesting. Instead they seemed to derail everything and make an awkward love story/fanservicy mess.
A Madea Family Funeral (2019)
Don't waste your money like I did
This was unarguably the absolute worst movie I've ever seen in theaters. Literally it was so bad, that for the first time ever I had to leave before the film was even close to being over (I left about 15 minutes in actually). The "jokes", if you can even call them that, were so terrible. They were poorly timed, poorly delivered, and overdone (like material that would have been expected about 15 years ago in a pg-13 B film that went straight to video). Actually pretty much all of the characters and situations in the film were so absolutely asinine and poorly done. Tyler Perry actually needs to stop making things, this was just so left field and obviously no real effort was put into making this film tolerable, let alone funny. If I could give this a 0 Rating I absolutely would.
What Still Remains (2018)
I only kept watching because I had already invested too much time into the film
The movie was okay, but it spent too much time on unnecessary scenes and then spent too little time on scenes/characters that could have used develepment. Like they spent half the film it seemed, following Anna and Peter on the road/traveling to the community, but then during the film's climax and ending it was all rushed to fit what felt like a 20 minute timespan. Also, I hate when films give female protagonists a holier than thou sense of morality as their only personality trait, in order to make them "likeable" i guess? Like Anna has been living in this post apocalyptic world for literally her entire life, and she is somehow opposed to any type of murder? Even in situations where it's self defense? Oh yeah except when it comes to saving her life specifically, then she's cool with it. Also she acts like she values life so much, but basically leaves her brother (who keeps on sacrificing for her) to die twice. Lastly, the ending was rushed, didn't add any realistic depth to the story, and was just simply bad and out of place.
Without (2011)
Made no sense
This movie made absolutely no sense. The caretaker, Jocelyn, was, at her best neglectful of her responsibilities around the house and at her worst, very abusive towards and inappropriate around the man she was supposed to be taking care of. Considering the fact that she was at the house for no more that a week or two, her gradual mental deterioration and feelings of loneliness and paranoia seemed to make no sense. Overall her sporadic change in behavior as well as the noticeable and unexplained changes of the townspeople that she interacted with was weird and unnecessary. And when the movie wasn't weird and jumpy, it was just really slow and boring. Even though I've read the synopsis and descriptions on both hulu and on here, I'm still honestly not sure what this movie is supposed to be about. Everyone was weird and none of the characters (except for the elderly man) was worth caring about.
Where the Skin Lies (2017)
Poorly Written
The movie wasn't bad enough to the point that I couldn't finish it, but it was bad enough that I just had to leave a review. It had an interesting concept and potential, but because of poor writing the plot and story fell flat. First of all it was totally unexplained why they were all compelled to get the tattoos, why they were cursed, and how the curse exactly worked. Then the characters were written to be so terribly dumb, like it was obvious after the first guy died and the one girl suffered a couple of lost points that apparently their fates were linked to the tattoo numbers and that leaving the house or harming someone would affect points. But they continued to act oblivious to this and even verbally attacked the one person in the group who had managed to simply guess this incredibly obvious trend.
Then, after watching these characters be dumb for the entire movie the writers decided to have the final victim killed off by this creepy old guy, who, gauging by the incredibly large number tattooed on his neck, has been killing off groups of vacationers for some time now, and gaining their life points as a result. But once again, it is unexplained who this guy is, how he ties into their situation, and why he's there. The movie would have been decent if it just ever explained why anything in the film was happening!