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JohnM-9
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Reviews
The Sandman (2022)
Impenetrable, incomprehensible and incoherent
I haven't read the comics, but it seems I should have in order to understand this indecipherable mess. Perhaps the comic aesthetic is difficult to transfer to another visual medium. When six drawings per page need to be extended to live action that's counted in minutes, it all looks and sounds like overwrought padding.
Or perhaps a comic that's read months after the last instalment can take liberties with the characters' motivation and personality, as long as they are consistent within the pages of a single comic book. But, dragged out in a series, characterization needs to be consistent and uniform throughout. In Sandman, everyone acts out of character, even within the space of a single episode, which is very irritating.
Even the protagonist himself: is he a depressed boy who needs the care of Big Sis, or a philosopher expounding New Age truths to humans? Is he just and compassionate, or unjust and vengeful? Is he lonely and craves for human companionship, or is he an aloof dreamlord? I tried hard to like this series, but the logic holes and out-of-character plotlines became too much after six episodes, so I gave up.
I Care a Lot (2020)
Occasionally flawed but mostly brilliant.
If proof were needed that only professional reviewers should be allowed to opine on films, it's provided by the plethora of swivel-eyed, mouth-frothing one-star reviews you can see here. I watched it because it was recommended by the BBC's Mark Kermode who thought it was enormous fun - and it is.
Yes there are plot holes but you forgive them for Rosamund Pike alone whose character's maddening amorality is so off the scale that you want to throw the moggy on the TV, claws unretracted. In fact all the leads are unlikeable, unethical and vindictive, which is what makes the film so pleasurable, as you watch open-mouthed in disbelief asking yourself: How Far Will They Go? (Answer: Further than you can imagine).
Yet the most gratifying thing about the film is its conclusion. How do you wrap up a movie where everyone should get their come-uppance? The ending manages to pull off both a satisfying conclusion and simultaneously provide a satirical look on the mores of American big business. After all the Devil has the best tunes.
A Primeira Tentação de Cristo (2019)
Funnily enough the final overall rating is correct
Although the movie ratings verge between the hysterical 1 (probably by people who haven't seen it) and 8-10 (by people who have probably seen it stoned) the ultimate 4-5 rating is actually spot on. The film ia a very average, rather short spoof comedy that's also being let down by the subtitles (I speak Portuguese). You won't ROTFL but you might chuckle at a few scenes and .. erm that's it. Oh and for those who scream 'would they dare satirize other religions', yes there's a sequence where they do and rather savagely at that.
Criminal: UK (2019)
Maybe the best Netflix series ever
I said "maybe the best Netflix series ever" and yes, I love Black Mirror. The latter isn't always consistent, but the three self-contained Criminal UK episodes (there are also three each from Germany, Spain and France) are a 10/10, 9/10 and 9/10. The acting is immaculate, the script is as sharp as a razor, the plot twists are truly unpredictable and in the first ep, David Tennant is just incredible. The police procedural structure reminded me of Line of Duty, so if you are a fan of that Criminal UK is unmissable. I can only hope the Spanish, German and French contributions are just as good.
The Invitation (2015)
Listen to the critics and not the viewers
Gripping thriller with a tight, excellent screenplay and a Lynch-like score that delivers an eerie atmosphere. Ignore the ridiculous low scoring. Go by what the critics say who all rate it above 7/10 or look at the prizes it's won at the various horror festivals.
Parfum (2018)
Psychodrama yes, police procedural no
I don't mind the gratuitous nudity, the violence, the bleakness or the slow pace. I don't even mind the philosophical diatribes, the moody cinematography or the preponderance of minor characters. All these can be good in my book - for the right movie or TV series. The thing that bothers me is that the chosen genre (a serial killer narrative) requires a believable screenplay and a satisfying resolution. This one loses the plot after episode 4 and gets lost in trying to outsmart us regarding the identity of the killer. The end result is a mess. A well-acted and beautifully shot mess, but a mess nonetheless.
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Can't understand the fuss (WITH SPOILERS)
On the plus side, the film employs rather well its modern setting alongside its medieval subtext of gypsies, curses, and souls promised to evil spirits. Sadly on the negative side, the film is formulaic and anyone with a modicum of film watching experience could see the twists and turns before they came, including the final one. Furthermore, it relies more on grossing you out (there is a lot of puking, ugly hags and dirty fingernails) rather than frightening you. My only explanation as to how it got the good reviews is that nowadays any Hollywood film without a happy ending with the lovers living happily ever after is so rare that it sends the critics into paroxysms of praise.
Head On (1998)
A study in brutalisation
I've just come back from the cinema, and having read the book ('Loaded' by Christos Tsiolkas) and being British/Greek and gay I thought it was excellent. It is a rarity for a start: a very good adaptation of a book, with amazing performances from an all-Greek Australian cast, including the gorgeous Alex Dimitriades himself who, incidentally is straight. I was particularly impressed about the cinematography (I looked it up later - by Jaems Grant and no, it's not a spelling mistake), all moody and dark like the plot.
The whole point about the film is encapsulated in the scene where Ari is having oral sex with Sean. He was selfishly roughing up and gagging Sean who had just said that he loved him. It was the ultimate brutalisation of sex by a brutalised closeted youngster in a hopeless, brutalising society. At that moment we wince, as Ari consciously rejects love for the anonymity of the street corner suck-off, but we *do* understand why he is unable to form a relationship: in his own way, he acts according to type, obeying his family's and society's homophobic and racist insults and conventions. Symbolically he looks up from his knees in the end, just as his TV friend Toula pushed him a few scenes before dismissively. The moral of the film as she says is that if you don't stand up for yourself you spend your life on your knees.
That moral may perhaps be irrelevant or far gone for gays who have come out and have asserted themselves in society by rejecting the hypocrisy of a double life full of compromises, but it is nevertheless still relevant for a large number of people in many different cultures.