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reptilianseverywhere
Reviews
Boy A (2007)
emotionally dishonest, missed masterpiece
The story in a few words: 24-years old Eric Wilson gets a second chance (and a new identity as Jack Burridge) after serving 14 years for a crime he committed as a kid. Turns out he's a child-murderer, and that revelation, along with his own sense of guilt, ends up ruining whatever future he might still have had at that point.
In my humble opinion this film could have been a masterpiece, maybe a classic even. The actors give some quite damn convincing performances, the imagery and score really help set the right mood, and the narrative flow, although a bit awkward, doesn't really get in the way of enjoying the film for all the good that it has to offer.
What absolutely ruins this film for me however, is that it tries way too hard to be an "eye-opener", and knowingly plays with your feelings so as to trick you into believing that *you* are, in fact, the monster. It's like the whole film, from beginning to end, just keeps whispering in your ear "hey, you, remember those two little bastards who abducted, tortured and murdered the 2-year old child? oh, remember that feeling of righteous hatred, the deep repulsion you felt back then? well guess what, you insensitive jerk? you were too quick to judge! see, the kids were actually victims themselves, and with that judgmental attitude of yours you're only helping perpetrate the injustice", all the while presenting you with a protagonist who's surprisingly easy to sympathise with - probably because he's nothing like the actual person that inspired him.
It's bad enough when a film tries to spoon-feed you a moral, but "Boy A" takes it a step further, because it does so through means of manipulation and deception, keeping you hostage of that very same conscience you're not supposed to have.
Los sin nombre (1999)
...why
I've seen lots and lots of horror movies. It's by far my favourite genre. I like a good scary movie; I also happen to like those laughable so-bad-it's-good kinds of movies; I even tend to forgive MEDIOCRE movies that rely on "jump scares" and "teen blood" to hold your attention. For good or bad, it's still entertainment.
What I can't forgive, what I loathe, is, well, a BORING movie; and that's the capital sin of "The Nameless", its real "ultimate atrocity". For a start, this movie is slow. Let's face it, you really can't afford to be slow unless you have a good plot and a good cast, and "The Nameless" has neither.
The plot is shallow, painfully so: clearly, no creative effort whatsoever was put into it. We're talking "copy-pasted straight from wikipedia" levels of dullness here. This is especially mortifying since the director stubbornly and dishonestly refuses to acknowledge it, and instead insists on feigning suspense where there's *none*.
With a slow, broken pace and an unimaginative, tired plot, you're left trying your very best to sympathize with the characters in a half-willed attempt to justify what seems more and more like a waste of time. Well, too bad! The characters are clichéd, they're onedimensional and just fail to come alive. It feels like even their writer didn't really care for them either.
So you hope beyond hope, you patiently wait for it to reach its climax, on its own terms, you keep waiting for it to surprise you, disturb you, redeem itself *somehow*... hey, this thing is supposed to be really... evil, and "extreme", right? Something *big* is bound to happen. Sooner or later. Or not. Suddenly, it's over.