An instant modern classic.
An indie film crew shoots a low budget, single-take film in a cursed power station and zombies show up.
The camera never cuts! shouts the director.
For anyone with even a passing interest in filmmaking this is an absolute gem, and keeps revealing layer upon layer of itself as the crew dies off and the production threatens to collapse.
A hilarious disaster.
Just make sure you stay all the way through the credits (both times!).
Highly recommended.
A-grade small-town murder-mystery with a great supporting cast, twisty plot reveals and a great lead performance from Kate Winslet.
Honestly, much more is potentially spoilery so if you got through all those hyphens without already skipping over to look up where it’s available for you to watch then maybe this isn’t your genre?
Still, if you’ve never dipped your toe into this specific kind of Broadchurch-y series then this is an excellent, accessible place to start.
Highly recommended.
When this whole pandemic situation started we knew that there was terrible art out there being made about it. Just some really dreadful, insufferably thoughtless bad takes.
But out there too are some diamonds — pieces of creativity that encapsulate and express the time beautifully.
This is the latter. Calling it merely “pandemic art” does a massive disservice to what Burnham has created here. Infact, INSIDE is really the first definitive piece of work from the shitstorm of the last year-and-change that actually feels like a meaningful embodiment of what life has become, and it all takes place in a single room.
Burnham’s comedy had always been brilliantly self-conscious and this is no different, playing big with creative lighting setups and brilliant minimalistic cinematography.
But it also turns against him over the course of a year working on his Netflix special, alone and steadily succumbing to the isolation. And there is familar darkness there.
It’s relatable. Distressing. The results are honest and sincere and uncomfortable, wrapped in dazzling visuals and straining, ragged-edged wit. Oh, and the songs are great.
The experience of the past fourteen months will leave a lasting mark on human collective psyche and culture and many more attempts will be made to express this capsule of time.
Whatever other stories come, INSIDE will rank absolutely among the best of them. The first real masterpiece of its kind.
Highly recommended.
Small town murder mystery against the backdrop of Australian drought.
A well constucted thriller with solid performances, great cinematography and a permeating hostile atmosphere overlaying the modern case with a unsolved death in the town 25 years earlier.
The dry, dead isolation of inner coastal Australia is on full display, with dusty wide empty expanses and a penetrating, tinderbox feeling of heat and impending ruin. The town has known hardships, and those that live there are stretched thin.
For them, a second tragedy might be the tipping point that finally destroys the community, and Aaron (Eric Bana) returning to town only serves to open old wounds.
Not more to add that wouldn’t verge on spoilers, so if you know this is your genre fare you can’t go wrong with this one.
Recommended.
Y’all, Zack Snyder is not a good filmmaker. I’m sorry if this is how you had to find out.
His pacing is awful, his characters are flat, and his one usual exception (that famous eye for dazzling cinematography, usually by filming comic compositions other people designed) is almost entirely absent here.
TL;DR: movie bad, too long, not fun, very boring, do not watch.
Otherwise, FULL SPOILERS AHEAD…
Continue reading “ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021)”
A metal/noise drummer suddenly experiences almost total hearing loss and has to deal with a complete upheaval of his nomadic life.
This came in with the 2021 Oscar for best sound design, and for good reason. Never treated like a gimmick, the audio design switches seamless from traditional cinematic mixing to diegetic character perspective to atmospheric sound that many of us would have taken for granted.
Riz Ahmed drops a fantastic performance as Ruben, drawing parallels with the drummer’s heroin addiction and the sudden withdrawal from that which had saved his life once before — music itself.
Comparisons are apt for 2004’s It’s All Gone, Pete Tong (a great mockumentary about a DJ undergoing a similar seachange following the loss of his hearing), but the ultimate trajectory, tone and message of the two stories are vastly different.
A powerful and moving, and at times abrasive, sensory experience. Well recommended.
Sony Animation has really been knocking it out of the park lately!
Kinetic, hyperactive and full up with heart, this is the very definition of a modern family film run through a Gen Z TikTok filter and imbued with strong, colourful energy.
Hits all the usual beats of this sort of fare and does so with infectious enthusiasm and personality.
The animation style is brilliant, the voice cast is A-grade, the dog is hysterical.
Recommended.
An alternate history drama where the Russians landed on the moon first, kicking off a prolonged, multi-generational space race of one-upmanship sustained by the wounded pride of the United States.
It’s bloody great.
Moreover, it’s a fascinating exploration of human motivations to greatness and high ambition as well as being a very grounded look at the hardships of space travel and what might have been but only for a few key moments of our own history going slightly one way or another.
Highly recommended.
It’s tough to really discuss what sets this apart from any other coming-of-age superpowered story without utterly spoiling the thing that sets it apart.
So more generally I can say that it has fun takes on a lot of well-worn tropes and has a couple of refreshing things to say on the way these sorts of stories play out.
The voice cast is incredible and the action is visceral, even if the animation outside of the grand set pieces can tend to sway on the cheaper side. Still, it didn’t detract.
You’ll know if you’re on board by the time the credits on the first episode finish rolling.
Absolutely not for kids.
Recommended.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Continue reading “INVINCIBLE s01”
Is it a bad movie?
Yes.
Is it the good sort of entertaining?
Also yes.
Some brilliantly ridiculous action stacked in around long stretches of flat exposition and some weird character choices.
The plot’s a mess and the acting’s stilted but it’s also fun when it’s chewing scenery and revelling in being the most Mortal Kombat it can be.
Highlights are the Scorpion/SubZero sequences (which sadly only stack up to around 20min of runtime bookending the main story), and some gloriously, hilariously gruesome FX.
Unfortunately it doesn’t really manage to keep the same gleefully ridiculous momentum it starts out with, but it does ultimately end on the right side of a good time and works as a decent enough setup for a completely bonkers sequel if they really go for it.
Worth a watch if you’ve got no higher expectations than some schlocky, trashy fun.
NERVE.SQUID.PILOT 