Change Your Image
Agostino-1964
Reviews
Saltburn (2023)
Meh - It's been done better
"The Talented Mr. Ripley" meets "Brideshead Revisited" meets any number of homoerotic class-struggle prestige pieces. Given the advance press and buzz, I kept expecting something more, something better, but this movie doesn't go beyond the cliches. Even the "shocking" scenes that everyone talks about feel un-earned: gratuitous flashes of fetish in the middle of an otherwise paint-by-numbers exercise.
Jacob Elordi is pretty. Barry Keoghan does his deadpan thing, which was disturbing and compelling in "The Killing of a Sacred Deer," but here just feels blank. Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant are fun as stereotyped daffy British aristos, but the other supporting characters make no impression whatsoever.
The storytelling telegraphs every reveal in the first few minutes, and then feels the need for a "Sixth Sense" style flashback at the end to say, "Look! We surprised you! Bet you didn't see that coming!"
Pointless and disappointing.
Kansas (1988)
Bad script, bad direction, bad acting
Wow, hard to imagine the positive reviews for this misbegotten turkey. The script makes a hash of character and motivation: unbelievable that anyone would do the things these characters do or speak the cliche lines they are given. Small town Kansans are treated like idiot rubes. Writer does not seem to know how to end the story, so tacks on a ridiculous wrap-up.
Director seems to cut to moody shots of farm machinery whenever he can't figure out what else to do. Special mention for a soundtrack that is a crime against humanity.
Dillon does Dillon (broody and crazy), McCarthy does McCarthy (inappropriate awkward grins). No other actors even register.
Except for a gratuitous and cringeworthy sex scene, feels like a poor basic cable TV movie. By the end, I was actually angry at how bad it was.