I do not watch every movie which comes out, primarily due to financial reasons (even with membership, cinemas charge between $12 - $15 per film, and I am trying to survive retirement without resorting to dogfood). Consequently, I pick those movies to go and see which I believe have potential OR have already been recommended by other critics (usually courtesy of The Weekend Australian newspaper) OR they are of a genre which particularly interests me (gore / tits 'n' bums comedies / torture porn / Arty-types / musicals / Jim Carrey are unlikely to ever light my pilot).
I will list the 12 most recently-viewed movies in chronological order, the newest heading the collection. These reviews will just be copies from the main posts. I'll add others as soon as I have seen them of course (which means that the ones on the bottom of the list will regularly drop off).
LITTLE WOMEN (2019)
d: Greta Gerwig
CAST: Saoirse Ronan; Emily Watson; Florence Pugh; Timothee Chalamet; Laura Dern
> yes, it's pretty good but really...yet another version...I mean, how many do we need...this is #6; this one tries to jigger things up a bit by using a flash back/forward structure (which I think is overdone here...I guess it assumes that we all know the narrative off by heart) and the ending is, at least, different to all the previous ones (but it's more novel than revelatory); this film's real success is based on the performances...while I am a permanent lover of Kate Hepburn's 1933 Jo, Saoirse positively glows in the role and Timothee is the best of all the Lauries...such good actors; the four sisters come across as real family...a great performance partnership
THE INVISIBLE MAN (2020)
d: Leigh Whannell
CAST: Elisabeth Moss; Aldis Hodge; Storm Reid; Harriet Dyer; Michael Dorman
> an immediately-impressive horror film because it wants to do more than just scare you; Elisabeth escapes an abusive / oppressive relationship...the guy knocks himself off...but as a genius in optics, is he really dead or just not able to be seen?; canny camera placement (there's usually room for another person in the shot) ramps up the paranoia and music / silence / the unexpected build the suspense; as an Australian, it is impossible to watch this and not think of the recent vile murder of Hannah Baxter & her 3 children by husband/father/real monster...this movie is a domestic violence story for our (and all) time; the twist in the tale is a genuine shock and I worried that the postscript was going to overdo it, but I was wrong...it's perfect; I briefly thought of Vertigo told from the woman's POV, but was too busy being rigid in my seat
THE LODGE (2019)
d: Veronika Franz; Severin Fiala
CAST: Riley Keough; Jaeden Martell; Lia McHugh; Richard Armitage; Alicia Silverstone
> The poster shouts out: "Scary as Hell! The next great horror film is here!"...er, no...it's just...not bad; two kids, grieving over their recently-dead mum, spend Xmas with Dad and his new girlfriend in an isolated house up in the mountains...the kids don't like the ring-in (she has a history of mental instability and trauma for starters)...Dad has to go back into town for a few days 'cos of work...you'll all be okay here on your own in the ferocious storm until I get back, won't you?; when the creepy weird stuff starts to happen, the tension rightly mounts, mainly because you're not sure who/what is behind it (the kids? the woman? the house? the dead mum? maybe even Dad?)...as soon as the culprit is revealed (about two-thirds in), the grip is gone; while all the actors are fine, the real star is the soundtrack: ominous drone at its best
BIRDS OF PREY (2020)
d: Cathy Yan
CAST: Margot Robbie; Jurnee Smollett-Bell; Rosie Perez; Mary Elizabeth Winstead
> like sitting through a 2-hour amateur gymnastics show, this movie goes on and on with physical moves that are replicated by all performers to the point of monotony (how many kicks to the crotch can you watch until it becomes naff?); while all the actors achieve a certain degree of vitality (with a special nod to Jurnee...her version of Black Canary is something to savour...the woman has charisma to spare...give her a starring role), the mix of Harley Quinn's cartoony persona with Scorsese-style urban seriousness just doesn't take...ice-cream & pickles...so all you are left with is the rush; chair-squirming violence (face-slicing & leg-snapping & body-exploding) is the real star of the show but I'm not sure how many of us can find that truly entertaining rather than just messy; after a short run of good, this is a step back for DC
A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD (2019)
d: Marielle Heller
CAST: Matthew Rhys; Tom Hanks; Susan Kelechi Watson; Chris Cooper; Christine Lahti
> as an Australian, the American children's TV persona of Mr Rogers means nothing to me... about 6 months ago, I watched a doco about the guy called Won't You Be My Neighbour, and all through it, I kept expecting a sex scandal to emerge...I mean, how could a real person be so decent?...not perfect, of course, just decent; this film is about that decency, focusing on a troubled journalist who interviews Fred Rogers and is improved as a result; cynicism, bitterness & rage are all there and Mr Rogers calmly & gently steers the writer into dealing with it before his life is ruined ("if it's mentionable, it's manageable" is my new mantra); some qualms: the dream sequence is a mistake, and the ribbon at the end is tied a little too neatly, but overall, this works as a warming, self-help narrative and nobody could be more surprised than me
THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019)
d: Robert Eggers
CAST: Robert Pattinson; Willem Dafoe
> an Arty telling of a Poe short story displaying some interesting technical choices (B&W; old-fashioned TV-style aspect ratio); unfortunately, it also opts for a lot of farting around (and if you ever watch this movie, you'll know why that's a pun) rather than straight-ahead psychological slowburn; old salt + young blow-in take a 4-week shift at a lighthouse-on-a-rock somewhere off the coast of New England...the old guy is crusty, secretive and strange + the young is testy, secretive and strange...as a storm wells up and strands them, can madness & murder be too far away? (like I said...a Poe story); the villains are isolation & alcohol (turps!), but what's with the tentacles & the mermaid & the wanking & the sinister gulls?; a horror movie that over-muddies reality & fantasy, so, rather than being scared or shocked, you are merely weirded out
A HIDDEN LIFE (2019)
d: Terrence Malick
CAST: August Diehl; Valerie Pachner; Michael Nyqvist; Maria Simon
> beauty in a coma...yep, it's another Terrence Malick film; set in Nazi Austria, this is the story of an alpine farmer / devout Christian / conscientious objector who joins up for the war anyway but refuses to swear an oath of loyalty to Hitler...well, the jackboot boys aren't too keen on that, and neither are the folks back home; while nobody could possibly argue with the film's ethical intention (it is a true story), as usual for Terrence the focus is on texture & colour & light while the story itself dawdles along, telling us the same thing over and over (we get it! his principles hurt his family!); I caught myself hoping for an explosion or something (I briefly considered yelling out FIRE! in the theatre, such was my craving for some oomph); with travelogue camerawork and patchwork montage structure, the film lulls while it looks absolutely stunning
1917 (2019)
d: Sam Mendes
CAST: George Mackay; Dean-Charles Chapman; Mark Strong; Colin Firth; Benedict Cumberbatch
> a visually-spectacular film (which I always struggle with if it's a war movie...I mean, should they really look good?), this WWI epic recalls other WWI epics (there are direct visual & plot quotes from Paths of Glory and Gallipoli) but can't entirely step up to join them; technically clever (it pretends to be one continuous take...which, of course, can't be), the story is of two Tommies seconded into running an errand: "get this message across enemy lines to a faraway battalion...if you don't make it, many men will die"; this inevitably means it's a Perils of Pauline narrative... one close call after another until the quest is over; while rats / body parts / Hun / mud add the compulsory horror, the story itself remains an action tale as much as any James Bond popcorner; I don't want to be excited & hopeful...I want to be disgusted & incredulous...it's total war
THE GENTLEMEN (2019)
d: Guy Ritchie
CAST: Matthew McConaughey; Charlie Hunnam; Hugh Grant; Michelle Dockery; Jeremy Strong
> pure entertainment (if you can handle bloodshed & the c-word & drugs & perversion & pathological greed...all in good fun, of course); essentially a long anecdote, fortunately told by Hugh Grant in an is-that-really-him performance; big time crims vie for dominance in the UK for the marijuana market, with one event demanding retribution which demands another and another (y'know, like bad movie-guys do), until there are so many things going on you're glad you've got a narrator to explain it; the star of the show is the dialogue: fast, full of cool one-liners (some of which are bound to become classic quotes) and bloody funny if you can keep up
THE TWO POPES (2019)
d: Fernando Meirelles
CAST: Jonathan Pryce; Anthony Hopkins; Juan Minujin
> I was (mostly) engaged by this rather choppily-edited film which, being about losing your religion & ethics & a talkfest extraordinaire, is an achievement in itself (for me AND the movie); one Pope wants to quit the top job and hand it over to another priest whose beliefs irk (he likes ABBA & plain, comfy shoes) and whose past is a little muddy but is still the ideal choice anyway; superbly acted by the two leads in a flawless performance partnership, the major weakness of this for me was that the flashback story (to the days of the heinous Argentinian dictatorship of 1976-1983) was far more gripping than the ceaseless moral chat between the two old guys
MARRIAGE STORY (2019)
d: Noah Baumbach
CAST: Adam Driver; Scarlett Johansson; Laura Dern; Alan Alda; Ray Liotta; Julie Hagerty
> primarily an actors' showcase, this is the least-soapie marital breakdown film since 1982's Shoot the Moon (which was also primarily an actors' showcase); this has the asset of occasional humour so it's not all relentless gloom 'n' yelling...but that's still there though, and at 136 minutes, it overstays its welcome; there are too many false endings (I counted three but the actual final one is admittedly perfect); Adam + Scarlett are a totally viable married couple who know which buttons to push and their performance partnership is spot-on; supporting cast are all in the okay-to-good range and the kid isn't cruelly torn asunder, which is a blessed relief
JOJO RABBIT (2019)
d: Taika Waititi
CAST: Roman Griffin Davis; Thomasin McKenzie; Taika Waititi; Scarlett Johansson; Sam Rockwell
> I don't think this works at all; Hitler & The Holocaust...monstrous, of course, but funny?...no, the blend of comedy + atrocity didn't work in Life is Beautiful either; if you're going to make fun of human barbarity, stick to silly all the way through (Life of Brian > crucifixion / Duck Soup > civil war), don't swirl in reality; as soon as this film cut to lynchings, dangling feet slowly turning, I knew Taika lost me...and there were more horrors to come; To Be or Not to Be, Colonel Klink and "Springtime for Hitler" sure, but when it comes to tittering at Nazis, that's it for me; saved from total rejection by the excellence of the performances...especially the kid
