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Don't Look Up (2021)
Truly scary, truly funny, truly possible
I'm going to say this outright: "Don't Look Up" is an absolutely genius dark-comedy that commentates on all of the worst problems facing humanity today and our lack of attention towards them that everyone on the planet needs to see. Now, normally I save those big synopsis lines of what I think of movies for the end of the review, but much like the giant comet hurdling towards Earth in the movie, I had to mention it now. With that out of the way, on to the actual details.
I'm pretty sure we can all agree that the Earth isn't having the best time right now. From climate change and the pandemic, to greedy corporations and selfish politicians, we got a lot on our plate of "Oh god, we're all screwed". And "Don't Look Up" manages to discuss all of them. There are dozens of ways to look at this movie, including the four previously mentioned. The giant natural disaster (the comet) that, while is clearly dangerous, isn't clearly visible until it's too late is an obvious parallel to the dangers of climate change. The invisible threat that scientists are warning us about is a nice little nod to our current virus-based problems. The billionaire who wants to exploit the coming disaster for the sake of profits is obviously relatable to our corporate overlords. And the {THE FOLLOWING SECTION RELATING THE FILM TO PRESENT-DAY POLITICIANS HAS BEEN REMOVED OUT OF FEAR FOR MY OWN SAFETY}. I'm sure there's other analogies and metaphors that can be derived from the film, but I don't want this to be ridiculously long.
Don't be fooled, the movie isn't just great for it's political and social commentary. It also has a fantastic cast. Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, and Mark Rylance and absolutely nail their characters perfectly. Timothee Chalamet, Jonah Hill, Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of cast also have great performances with some great moments (especially Jonah Hill, he is hilarious here). And their performances are further enhanced by the fantastic writing by Adam McKay, who before this did great work on "Vice", "Ant-Man", and even "Saturday Night Live", so it's fair to say that the writing's pretty good. He even directed it, resulting in some great scenes and shots that really drive the messages of the movie home.
"Don't Look Up" is, in my mind, the most realistic movie ever made. Not in a graphic depiction of violence (the film actually don't really have violence of any sort) or in an overly dark tone (the film is a comedy, of course it isn't overly dark), but in how it holds up a mirror to our reactions towards the world and it's problems. While it's obvious the movie is meant to be exaggerated for comedic effect, it's hard to not think that some of the moments shown could actually happen. And that's the main point of the movie. The tag line for the movie is "Based on truly possible events", and that perfect. Despite how obviously exaggerated it is, despite the swapped names of various brands, one could see how an event like this could happen. It's scary to think that in Earth's final moments, that's how we'll face the apocalypse. And that's why everyone needs to see this absolute masterpiece. I'd say it's the best movie on Netflix, but beating "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" isn't easy. But man, does it get close.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
More like "The Snore-pranos" (wow, that was bad, even for me)
I've never seen "The Sopranos", but I've heard great things about it. I heard it had great writing, I heard it had shocking twists, I heard it was one of the best shows HBO put out. So, a prequel movie seemed like a great way to get into the show, so much so that an interview with the writer and director of the movie said that was the point of it. What could go wrong?
As it turns out, a lot.
Let's start with the writing. The film constantly flip-flops between two stories: the standers story about Richard 'Dickie' Moltisanti and his influence on Tony Soprano, and this random story about the start of a black gang in the area. The second story has very little to do with the main plot, only crossing over with each other maybe once or twice. Not to mention that whenever either story starts to get interesting, it jumps to the other one, killing the pacing.
Speaking of pacing, that's another problem. The movie tries to cram way too much into it. One second it's talking about Dickie's dealings with the crime family, the next, it's Tony's father coming back home from prison, then Dickie's girlfriend is cheating on him with the leader of the black gang (which is never implied before and seems to serve zero purpose). There's so much in this and so little time to build it. This would have been much better as a mini-series. It would have allowed much more time to build these plot threads into something meaningful, rather than have them just hang around.
One of the only good parts about the movie is the acting. The cast does a great job with the script, despite it's shortcomings. They add some sense of emotion and care to an otherwise bland experience.
I'm not going to let "The Many Saints of Newark" change my opinion on "The Sopranos". I'm sure that everything I've heard about that show is true, but this movie seems to be its opposite in every way. The writing is bland and all over the place, the film is rather predictable and by the numbers, and is an easy way to scare someone away from an iconic HBO series. However, despite how true that last comment may be, that shouldn't let this movie scare you away from the series. I'm sure that the show is a thousand times better than this bland mess.
The Card Counter (2021)
An interesting premise, but man, was the execution poor
I was in the movie theater a few weeks ago and saw a poster for this movie which I had never heard of before. It had Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Willam Dafoe, and was produced by Martin Scorsese, how had I not heard of it? Then, a few minutes later, I saw the trailer. It looked interesting, showing an army veteran going into gambling while dealing with his past. It seemed like it would be pretty good.
Key word there is "seemed"
This movie started off pretty well, with Oscar Issac's character playing blackjack while, in typical Scorsese fashion, narrating to us how counting cards works. However, it's only downhill from there. The movie seems to have an identity crisis, with two different plots that never seem to mesh together well. Not to mention the fact that either plot really isn't that interesting. The card playing scenes are the best parts of the movie, but it takes forever to get to them.
(Side Tangent: You gotta love how this movie's about someone who learned how to cheat at blackjack, and then spends the whole movie playing poker. Like, it's literally the title of the movie, how do you mess this up? Tangent over.)
One of the few good things about this movie is the performances. While the script is pretty meh, the cast does the best they can with it, and they do well. I mean, they're basically reading nothing, but at least they read it well.
"The Card Counter" had promise, but almost instantly fell on its face. The slow pacing, the bland story, and the general lack of any real substance to anything happening makes it a rather forgettable movie. There isn't much to gain from watching this, so don't feel bad if you miss it. There's much better things to watch right now.
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Good crime movie in the first half, pure insanity in the second half, a great time all together
Quentin Tarantino is one of my favorite directors of all time, maybe even my all-time favorite. And one part of his movies that I like so much is his writing. He has such a unique style of writing that, combined with his unique directing, make his movies so fun. So even if he isn't the one in the director's chair, you'll still enjoy it. Now, combine that writing with director Robert Rodriguez, George Clooney, and vampires, and you got something special.
"From Dusk Till Dawn" is an interesting movie. For the first half of the movie, you're watching a pretty standard Tarantino crime movie, almost akin to something like "Reservoir Dogs" and it's pretty good. Then, our characters get to the Titty Twister strip club, and out of nowhere... VAMPIRES!?
The change from crime to vampire hunting is so drastic and sudden, you almost have no time to fully realize what's happening. All of a sudden, the film becomes an absolute bloodbath of absolutely insane proportions. And while I find it awesome, the rather abrupt change in tone can be a bit jarring.
Another problem is the directing, at least for me. I'm not saying that Rodriguez is a bad director, I actually quite like him, but the problem comes from the script. Having the directing not match Tarantino's writing can make the movie feel a little... off, like it's missing a part of itself.
Everything else about this movie is just awesome. Of course, the writing is great, and so are the actors. George Clooney, Harvey Keitel, and Quentin Tarantino himself all give great performances, along with the rest of the cast. Not to mention the action of the second half is just pure fun.
"From Dusk Till Dawn" is a bizarre movie, but undeniable awesome. It's two halves are both great in their own way, although the change can be a bit abrupt. Despite this, it's an absolute blast of a time that everyone should watch.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
This movie has aged. Not necessarily badly, but it has aged.
A while back, I decided that I was going to do a marathon of every single
theatrical Disney animated movie (plus a couple of bonus movies I threw in there for fun), and the first movie on that list was, of course, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" When this movie first came out, it was a game changer. Up until then, animation was usually only regulated to just being a little five minute short you saw before the actual movie started. But this showed that animation was capable of so much more. If it weren't for this, all of the animated movies that we love would have never existed. And how well does this incredibly influential piece of entertainment hold up over 80 years later?
It's not bad.
Okay, I'd imagine that when this first came out, people must have been blown away by it. Then again, they didn't really have anything to compare it to. But today? Animated movies are now starting to rival live-action films. In my personal opinion, a lot of them even surpass live-action films. So when I see an hour-and-23 minute movie whose story could have been told in 30 minutes or less, don't expect me to compare it to something like "Wall-E" or "Soul" Yes, the story has quite a bit of filler and some of the scenes are pretty forgettable. Not only that, but a lot of the songs aren't exactly the best. Some of them are good, but others you won't remember for very long. A few days after watching it, you'll be able to remember maybe a few key scenes, but about 70-75% of the movie you'll forget about.
(Side-Tangent: Did anyone else notice how much of a creep the Prince was? Like, he broke into a woman's house, a woman whom he doesn't even know, and then at the end of the movie, he goes out to find her and then kisses her while she was under the effect's of the evil step-mother's spell. He did not know about that spell, so as far as he knew, he was making out with a corpse. Tangent over.)
Alright, now onto the good stuff, which there is plenty of. The first thing that jumped out to me was the animation style. All of the human characters are animated in this very unique way. It's as if they drew over a real-life actor doing the motions (if you saw the movie, you'll know what I'm talking about). In fact, I think that is how they animated it. It give the movie such a unique look that's unlike anything else today. It almost makes me wish that there was a whole movie animated just like that. Of course, all of the things that are animated normally still look great. I mean, it's Disney animation, it's kind of a given that it's going to look amazing and push boundaries. Now, I know that before that I said a few of the songs weren't amazing, but the songs that are good are pretty catchy. Something else this movie does really well is the writing. This goes for a lot of the movies during this early era of Disney, but this movie isn't really written like a movie. It written almost like a storybook or a fairytale, which is pretty fitting, I suppose.
All of these factors combined make "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" a unique experience unlike anything else made today, for better and for worse. So, should you watch this piece of Disney history? Sure. I mean, it's "Snow White" it's a classic. But just know that it's status and importance doesn't automatically mean you're going to enjoy it.
Tenet (2020)
Christopher Nolan at his best
A few months ago, "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" got a rather big resurgence online, probably due to the Snyder Cut of "Justice League" coming out, and a lot of people realized how good the movie was. Everyone kept talking about how well the movie aged and that now, they understand all of the nuances and political commentary that lied within (myself included). Long story short, people realized how smart the movie was, and it made people also realize how great the movie is. That's how I think people will look back at "Tenet" Sure, all of Christopher Nolan's movies can be seen as very complex and occasionally a little hard to follow, but "Tenet" is beyond that. It takes the plot device of time travel, an already rather confusing idea, and dials it up to 10,000. Normal and inverted characters interacting with each other, people being in multiple places at once, people setting up thing in the past so they can occur in the future, people setting things up in the future so that can occur in the past, it gets absolutely insane. And I love it. A lot of people said they had to watch it a second time in order to understand it, and while I got it on my first viewing, I can see how some people might need that. It's such a brilliant film, and yet so many people didn't like because it was to complex, and it's a shame. Maybe in a few years, people will remember this and decide to come back to it. Maybe then, it'll get the love it deserves.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Anyone Can Wear the Mask
I've been reading comics for basically my entire life. Superheroes have always played a part in my life, mainly Marvel. And from all the costumed adventurers, my favorite was always Spider-Man. The story of Peter Parker and the clash between his normal, everyday life and his high-flying, crime fighting life was captivating to me. Peter wasn't a billionaire philanthropist or an alien in disguise. He was person, an normal, everyday person with normal, everyday problems. Spider-Man would be my gateway to the Marvel Universe and comics, which would then be my gateway to other art forms. However, the magic of the comic book was always with me. And no film captured that magic better than "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" It had a gorgeous art style reminiscent of comics, it had action, classic characters, and heart. It made me laugh, cry, have at least twelve nerd-based freak outs. But those are not the reasons I love this movie. Well, I do love the movie for all those reasons, but it's not the main reason. To me, this movie isn't just a love letter to the history of Spider-Man, but to all of Marvel and comics in general. It shows us that anyone can be a hero. That anyone is capable of good. That it will always triumph over evil. It's shows how universal and inspiring these characters are. It's the perfect showcase of why we love comics. And what could be more perfect than that?