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The Lobster (2015)
Dystopia Is Better Tolerated With A Partner
"The Lobster" Features a comically dystopian story that is frightfully accurate. The score accentuates and compliments both form and content, always adding to but never intruding on the other elements. The Production design, cinematography, and Yorgos Lanthimos' vision come together spectacularly through the use of appropriate color, lighting, angles, and symbolism.
Everything is placed into shots for a reason, whether it's an ominous tranquilizer gun, a now transformed family member, or a salt and pepper shaker set... Mise en scene is masterfully handled in a way that treats the appreciative viewer to one Easter egg after another.
The story is brutally honest. We are already in a society that values partnerships (even forced partnerships) over singlehood, and "The Lobster" clearly satirizes this, but then goes one step farther to explore forced singledom. Both are unhealthy means to a traumatic and artificial end, as the unnerving ending of this film harrowingly demonstrates.
Awarded a well deserved 7 stars of 10. I'm looking forward to Lanthimos' "The Killing of a Sacred Deer."
The Snowman (2017)
Fewer Thrills Than Required
The Snowman features effective Mise en Scene that forces the viewer to feel the cold and foreboding nature of not only a Norwegian winter, but of the beast itself. Tones of blue accentuate the season and the sound of crunching snow provides effective sensory stimulation to get the vision across.
Cinematography is straightforward and effective. I feel the framing is neither uninspired nor radical.
The story, however, is long and drawn out. Names are quickly and casually thrown about and then not mentioned, only to resurface 20 minutes later. What is the mystery here, where is this story going? is a question I found myself asking 45 minutes into the 120 minute film.
Character motives aren't well defined until the end, an idea that works for antagonists but serves to confuse the viewer when it comes to the detectives and the children.
Sadly, I found myself fighting to stay awake after 70 minutes of "The Snowman". I feel that critical reviews comparing it to "The Silence of the Lambs" are wholly misleading and built expectations beyond what the director was able to deliver.
Awarded 4 of 10 stars for effective use of sound, lighting, and mise en scene to bring the viewer into the frigid world of mid-winter Norway.
Gemini (2017)
Interesting, yet wanting,
The story is quality, the score is good, but the goals of the director and cinematographer have left me with more questions than answers. What is trying to be accomplished with the (over)use of the color blue? Mise en scène throughout the film is boring. DP included purposefully shaky camera work during car scenes, which I find both interesting and profoundly annoying.
This time, the story was strong enough to make up for the lacking vision from the director.
The Sense of an Ending (2017)
A Film For Those Who Think
I am unable to find anything that hasn't already been said about this gem of a film. Take a hint by reading the well worded and postured positive reviews and contrasting them against the small minded negative ones; The Sense of an Ending is a film that will get you to think and feel - and maybe relate. It's upsetting, humorous, remorseful and hopeful.
I am rating this introspective tale a well-deserved 7/10, and I hope to see more quality cinema like The Sense of an Ending in the future.
Jason Bourne (2016)
Open Up And Say..... Yawn.
More of the same from a franchise that has met its end. The plot to Jason Bourne is established immediately - Get Bourne. Worse more, the terrible screenplay is urgently filled with entirely too much copy that. Copy that? Copy. Copy that. Alpha team. Bravo team. Sitrep. Copy? Copy that.
The CIA has access to every computer and every CCTV in the world and can plot the layout of your kitchen using an your IP address. Not only that, they also have a go team on 30 second standby that knows every layout of every building of every major city in the world.
But those are silly details. Hey, Let's go to Greece. Now Berlin. Langley. London... Vegas, baby!
The score was as uninspired as the screenplay. This is what we are supposed to find exciting - Now take it.
Even great casting couldn't save this force-fed action movie from the same fate as other poorly thrown together sequels. And it is the great casting which took an otherwise 4-star rating to a reluctant 5.
The Secret Life of Pets (2016)
An Entertaining Family Flick
The Secret Life Of Pets is an amusing and entertaining look behind the curtains and closed doors at what exactly goes on when people leave the house and their pets behind.
The plot is defined in a timely fashion, new characters are introduced that add to the experience rather than hijack it, and the pace of the story development is good. At no time was I yearning for a resolution or to "get on with this".
I can think of only one or perhaps two scenes that had been spoiled by trailers, another positive aspect of the movie. The Secret Life Of Pets kept some secrets of its own rather than spilling the beans during teasers and trailers.
CGI at times seems cheap, most clearly in scenes involving close-ups of the characters anthropomorphized faces. This is sadly becoming the norm as movie companies outsource their CGI.
Finding Dory (2016)
A Plot With Limited Possibilities
While this much-anticipated sequel provides a few instances of comic relief and introduces a handful of new characters, there is only so much you can do with a story-line where the same obstacle presents itself for each situation; Dory can't remember, but she's trying her best.
The protagonist manages to just keep swimming her way through all sorts of unexpected twists and turns, hindered by her disability but with the help of all sorts of friends and family. There were a couple of scenes which intersected quite well with events from the "Finding Nemo" time-line in a nearly Tarantino-esque fashion. I found this to be an impressive attempt to maintain story integrity where most modern-day CGI flicks would have just cut to a singing and dancing animal.
Overall, the story-line was lacking. The CGI seemed shoddy at times, the score was uninspired, and the original sense of adventure that came with "Finding Nemo" was replaced mostly with varying degrees of caution and stories about modern day values; 1) Don't belittle the disabled. 2) Have faith in family and friends. 3) Be sure to watch the next three CGI movies featuring singing and dancing farm animals with no discernible plot.
I awarded a reasonable 5/10 rating. Points were deducted for what I consider to be excessive baby talk.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Terribly Disappointing
Uninspired, drab, no discernible story. Ill defined characters with ZERO development. No closure, no progress, nothing but loose ends. Couch surfing folk musician wanders through a week and a few cities only to discover his life really does suck. I want my evening back - yes, it's that bad.
Is this a joke the Coen brothers are playing on the audience? The only logical conclusion is that yes, indeed it is. "Inside Llewyn Davis" is by and far the worst movie (yes, MOVIE.. as this doesn't deserve being called a film)I've seen since The Love Guru and that movie with Adam Sandler where he plays twin brother and sister. The fact that I am even taking the time to write about how awful of a movie this is does, in fact,make me want to throw up.