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Reviews
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014)
Veers from fascinating to tedious
Elements of this series are excellent. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a passionate science communicator with an infectious sense of wonder. The historical segments describing key contributions to the development of astrophysics are particularly interesting, and there are some nice explanations of important concepts and discoveries. The graphics are impressive.
But parts of this series are very tedious - one example being the earnest explanations of why evolution is real, which will irritate people who already believe in evolution but probably won't convince anyone who doesn't. In some ways, this show tries to do too much, causing it to lose focus.
Cosmos usually explains ideas very clearly, but sometimes runs through some quite technical stuff too quickly (e.g. That bit on electrons jumping between orbits around an atom's nucleus and absorbing/emitting light).
And those impressive graphics... well, there's a fair bit of hammy acting in front of a green screen, which IMO detracts significantly from the show.
Overall, Cosmos is fascinating in places but very tedious in others, so it becomes a slog and I never feel very enthusiastic about watching the next episode of the series.
Enys Men (2022)
Fascinating experimental film with wonderful sense of place
Many reviewers are describing Enys Men as a folk horror film. This is sort of correct, but is also likely to lead viewers to approach the film with expectations that will not be met. This is an experimental film with little overt plot. Perhaps it's an abstraction of folk horror, or maybe just a film that uses some folk horror techniques.
The camera work goes from breathtaking panoramas to the smallest details: cracks in rocks, lichen, gorse, gulls. The sound design is thoughtful, powerful and central to the film. Both together capture such a strong sense of place, making Enys Men very immersive.
The story does not explain itself or resolve in a clear way. Some people will find this frustrating. Indeed, I found it frustrating at first, because I had gone into the cinema expecting a folk horror movie with the fairly standard tropes and story arc of the genre. But that's not what this is.
This film is experimental, slow, and leaves you plenty of space for interpretation. To me, it's a film about the power of place, our connection with the past, ritual, and grief. I'd really recommend this fascinating and unusual film, just try to leave your genre expectations behind!
Lat sau san taam (1992)
Over-the-top action flick
Another Hong Kong action film that pits a gritty detective who seem to have been borrowed from the SWAT team against a comic-book villain who appears to be mostly intent on showing just how much of a bad guy he really can be.
There's also a police chief who only seems to get in the way of our hero until he eventually does something useful late in the day, a gang member who isn't as bad as he seems, an evil henchman with a penchant for grenades, and a female character with no personality whatsoever who also manages to help save the day in a stereotypically female way in the end.
Pure cliché then.
There's a little plot development in here, which is unimportant because the story - cop trying to stop a gun smuggling gang after they kill his partner - is basically an excuse for huge amounts of shooting and a whole lot of explosions.
This is one of those movies where all kinds of things blow up whenever someone shoots them as if each bullet were a miniature bomb, and people only ever need to reload when the director wants to add a little twist to a fight scene.
Towards the end, Hard Boiled almost seems to slide into parody, and I was half expecting to see a helicopter emerge from behind a panel in the rubble of the villain's lair to carry the him away, laughing evilly while machine gunning a children's birthday party, or something.
If you're looking for an over-the-top action film that has no time for nonsense like making much sense, this is a reasonably entertaining two hours that you might as well experience. It's not one of the better action movies I've seen though.
45365 (2009)
A slice of small town life
The first thing you should know about this film is that there's no plot or narrative. Not much happens. There's no excitement, no action, no resolution, and unusually for a documentary, no point of view being pushed.
This is a short movie about life in a small town in America. We see people going about their daily business, talking about everyday things, and that's about it.
This is very different to most films, which are driven by an evolving storyline and often a liberal helping of action or drama of one sort or another. There's no contrived conflict here, no dramatic music or camera work.
This film is a collage of bits and pieces of people just existing. It creates a sense of place in quite an organic feeling way. We get a picture of a town that still retains a real feeling of community, where life hasn't yet given way to the rush of the big city.
Capturing that slice of small town life and presenting it to the viewer is what this film is really all about. It's a different kind of viewing experience from your average documentary, and a pleasant change from the norm.
The Cove (2009)
Shocking cover-up exposed
This film follows a team attempting to capture footage of the mass slaughter of dolphins that takes place in secrecy in small fishing village in Japan.
Ric O'Barry was the dolphin trainer for the TV series Flipper. He turned to activism in grief when one of the show's dolphins committed suicide, fighting for cetaceans to be released from captivity worldwide. In this documentary, O'Barry puts together a team who put themselves at great risk to get this story out. For that, they deserve deep respect.
We see the lengths the people of the town of Taiji go to in trying to cover up their actions. We see how the cover up extends up into the government of Japan itself. Most of the film details the crew's efforts to bypass this concerted attempt to suppress the truth.
The climax is horrific. This story will stay in my head for a long time. Like all of the best documentaries, it taught me something new, it produced a profound emotional impact, and it leaves me wanting to know more. This is a deeply saddening tale that deserves to be seen widely.
The King of Kong (2007)
Nice guy underdog takes them all on
The movie started a little slowly for me, perhaps because I've never really played arcade games. It was only about halfway in that I found myself really caring what happened, essentially because the challenger, Steve Wiebe, emerges as a really nice, sincere guy and I found myself wanting him to win.
To me, most of the other characters seemed clearly to be rooting for the champion, Billy Mitchell, even willing Wiebe to fail. I thought it was telling, for example, the way Brian Kuh seemed basically to try to distract Wiebe as he was approaching the record. Another scene that comes to mind was when the challenger and another guy show up at Mitchell's restaurant. The others are all there. They hadn't invited Wiebe and from their comments, they had plainly decided to exclude him from their clique.
They talked about how mental strength was essential, but no one played mind games on their friend, the champion. They talked about how you had to prove yourself in public rather than just on video at home, but it seemed that requirement only applied to the challenger.
Some reviewers have suggested all of this reveals how competitive the whole thing was, but to me, a group of the characters just came across as somewhat petty and mean spirited.
Mitchell was the worst of all. Whereas at the beginning, he seemed quite likable, the impression of arrogance and entitlement he increasingly gave off as the documentary went on became quite unattractive.
It's impossible to say whether all of this reflects the reality of what went on, or if the narrative emerged primarily out of the way the footage was edited. Whatever the truth, I found myself siding with Wiebe, agreeing with his comments that he wasn't being allowed to compete on a level playing field.
The way the film builds the viewer's support for the underdog challenger is effective. There are moments of suspense and drama. Most notably, I found myself engaged in and caring about a documentary on a topic I have little knowledge of and virtually no interest in. In my eyes, that's an achievement.
So why not more than seven stars? Just an attempt to avoid hyperbole. I see a lot of ten-star reviews on this page. This is a good documentary, not a great one.