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mckennapaul
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The Night Clerk (2020)
Difficult yet very compelling!
Tye Sharidan did a great job of playing someone with ASD! The film steered away from all the usual short sighted clichés depicted in the media and its clear the actor and director did their research. All the small awkward movements likes he's super aware of every body part. With the way he stops and starts the conversation. And Bart had me laughing with his regular quirks. Hats off, well done!
The story really rings true to how people with Autism are taken advantage of, and suspected as the culprit because they act differently.
It's difficult to watch in many parts of the film but that's because of the severely awkward social behaviour of Bart. Which I think is what the director wanted to convey, and that will probably put many people off which is a shame. The crippling loneliness of Bart comes through in the film even if the character doesn't obviously express it. The scene when he came up to share dinner with his mum was well communicated it was a huge step for both of them. And it shows throughout the film how difficult the relationship is between Bart and his mum.
The situation Bart finds himself in is a little dramatic to compare to real life but it made for and entertaining story.
Nicely done with respect to the ASD condition. Cudos!
I Am Mother (2019)
Original and interesting take on a terrifying AI
An interesting idea for the terror of AI taking over the world.
There were plenty of Easter eggs in there for the veteran Sci-fi fan and the woman was very reminiscent of Sarah Connor.
The young actress played the role very well, compelling with such great emotion.
But, there were signs of a certain ideology that came through in the plot. Now any other time I wouldn't have taken note but with today's political climate its quite unmistakable and that subverted the story a little, which is unfortunate.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
End to awesome era with some Pandering to the audience.
The thing that the writers and editors did so well in Infinity War was splicing all the mini subplots together. It was written and directed so well that it didn't feel disjointed or clunky. Endgame tried to do the same and failed. There were some plot holes and clucky awkward scenes with strange pacing. There were too many pop-culture references which is lazy writing and the jokes came off half-assed.
The plot itself wasn't about beating Thanos and restoring peace, it was more concerned with tieing up all the little plot ends for each character. Which became tiresome by the 3rd act. When the war broke in the 3rd act it felt like it had already been done in Infinity War. Apart from the restored characters (which was nice) it felt like they were showing that scene for the sake of it. Oh here's another battle, let's go kick some ass! rolls eyes... The message was clear; war, bad... We're all stronger together, if we put aside our differences and stand together we're better than the sum of our parts. Which is why it was confusing at the height of the battle the men and women were shown succeeding separately instead of teams working together. Which is quite relevant in today's political climate.
The ending was nice even if it was an easy way to finish it. What's better than a hero? A dead hero... As cynical as that may sound, the ending with Tony Starck narrating through the ending was a nice touch to the end of an epic era.
Now I'll have to rewatch them all from the first one, where it all began, inside of a cave...
Glass (2019)
Critics are wrong! Classic open Ending...
When the trailer for Split dropped I was skeptical, it was linked to the first film and now the trailer for Glass was revealed. I thought this was jumping on the superhero band waggon. Boy was I wrong... It takes the superhero premise, rips off the front cover and throws the rest out the window. It may seem like a superhero story but plays with the cliché to an interesting twist. Unbreakable was brilliant in its own right, Bruce Willis was fantastic! He's more captivating when he plays the vulnerable hero, Die Hard being the obvious example. Samuel L Jackson needs no introduction as Mr Glass, bringing effortless depth and charisma to any character on screen.
Split was hit and miss but I enjoyed the story. I've always been a fan of psychological thriller and DID is the Holy Grail when it comes to psychology. James McAvoy is a good actor but surely he couldn't sustain the suspension of disbelief throughout the film. Split was better than expected if even a bit messy, but McAvoy and Anya Taylor Joy brought something to the table which kept it interesting. And, the story-arc between Bruce Willis's character and his son was a nice touch. Then the twist with Mr Glass played by the one and only Samuel L Jackson,nice I thought, real nice. This trilogy could be a refreshing spin on the over saturated, Disney infused superhero genre. And now I've seen the conclusion to the trilogy...
The critics got it wrong... If you're expecting run of the mill superhero story you may be disappointed. The beauty of this film is that it takes all the tropes of a superhero story and plays around with it. You can see that M Night Shyamalan is a comic book fan, that he loves a beat down superhero rising up to fight for another day and that the villain is a mastermind bent on the destruction of the world that narrowly escapes death. But, that's not how this story ends. That's not what this story is like, it's placed in the real world, in real life where people are hurt, where people can die. No it doesn't have endless amounts of faceless cannon fodder for the good guys to kill, ten thousand bullets shot and no one gets hit. No these characters have heart, they have meaning, they have soul. It wasn't perfect by any means, some of the scenes with McAvoy's character switching personalities git a bit more at tknes and just came across cheesy. If it was reduced the amount of times he switched it would have given it more meaning when he did. It had nice details, like M Night's cameo linking his story to the last film. Nice touch. And that they put in the same actor who played Bruce Willis's son in Unbreakable, brilliant! The trilogy had its weak points but nevertheless the characters where likable, they wanted me to route for them. The story arc was interesting, it had mystery and I felt invested in what happened to the characters and that's why it was a fantastic end to a trilogy.
Split (2016)
The biggest load tripe I've ever seen!
The whole premises that someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder is a preditor is completely obsurd! The reason why people develope this disorder is from past trauma, it's a way of surviving through something horrible, like constant physical or psychological abuse. Most with this condition are self loathing and afraid for their own safety. Which is why a part (or personality) takes over for protection. This director is going from bad to worse!