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Good Omens (2019)
Cute and Fluffy
In a nutshell: it is very cute. Although the themes of good and evil, heaven and hell, are rather epic and grand, this at heart just a small, gentle story of two men who hang out in a bookshop together, go to the pub together, pretend not to like each other, but secretly adore each other beyond the telling.
For me, it verged sometimes on schmaltzy. Whimsy is nice. Absurd is nice. But as an English person, with these things I can't always quite shake the feeling that it's a version of England and Englishness being sold shamelessly to Americans. The cuteness of it, like a little decorative teacup, is charming for sure, but I missed a bit of bite too. There are moments when it could almost bite, but then it seems to get scared and back down fast. For all that, Sheen and Tenant are extremely experienced actors who make it fun, watchable, and easy, ably supported by John Hamm (another highly professional actor), who seems to be having the time of his life with this relatively simple, comedic part.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
A Complex Vision
The book builds a very large and complicated world, even by science fiction standards. So to even dare to create a film version of it was ambitious from day one. There are so many ways it could go wrong, and so many risks. Part One worked (at least for me). I was apprehensive about Part Two, as I feared it might let me down, or become bogged down in the vast details of the novel, or be yet another victim of film-making by committee so that everything lost its colour and strangeness. That did not happen. This is a special film. It's an intelligent, beautifully made blockbuster. It's an act of devotion for the novels, too.
Dune Part Two is a long, thought-provoking and ambitious film that sets out as a philosophical study of the nature of belief and religion, and manages to be that without losing any of the spectacular visual beauty and drama along the way. It isn't a particularly light or easy film, but it is stunning, and it asks you to pay attention to it fully. It's a serious film. I respect that, because it's a serious book with a serious point to make.
The landscapes are striking and strange. There are thrilling and tense moments. There are also softer moments of intimacy and strong characterisation. I think Lady Jessica particularly comes across as extraordinarily dangerous, manipulative, and without any other options except to be that. Paul is the reluctant messiah who understands that nothing actually compels him to do what the prophecies say, but that at the same time, he will do what the prophecies say, because there is no other way out. His struggles are very well represented and easy to understand, without being over-simplified.
What I did not like, the reason it's a 9 rather than a 10, was that a couple of moments were a little unnaturally segued into, in my opinion. Things seemed to be rather sudden developments on occasion. I also think the ending was good in that it wasn't an ending but just a beginning of a new phase of the story, which fits with the novels and Paul's situation, but it might have left some people rather unsatisfied.
The Marvels (2023)
Poor and Lazy
In theory, there could be a film made from this material that is all right. Good, I don't know. But there could be some fun and drama in the power and body swap concept of a kind.
Sadly, there is no fun in this film at all. It's a mess. It tries to wisecrack at moments when it should be serious. It's heavy-handed when it should lighten up. It's emotional at the wrong moments and cold at the wrong moments. Truly, it is a mess. The writing is just really bad. I suspect too many writers were involved, with too many corporate demands on them to meet various aims, so that the result is that no character has any real moment where you care about them, because they don't show any depth or consistency in who they are. They are just a series of ill-timed jokes and tedious comments, interspersed by not great special effects of people punching each other. I think the worst is that there are no stakes. No one seems to really care about anything. Therefore as the audience you don't care either. I have no idea what the point was. I really don't recommend this film.
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Beautifully Complicated
I watched this as a teen and was haunted by it, and have since rewatched it a few times. I feel that it is a novel that happens to be in the form of a film. It is really extremely sad, but without being maudlin or melancholic. It gave me a new understanding (as a teen) of something I'd never seen about people before: that their "crazy" side might be less painful for them to live through than to deal with the reality of the thing that's made them crazy. Their behaviour might be the only shield they have against unmanageable pain. As an adult, you usually know that. When I was 14, I didn't. I learned it here. So this film has a special place in my heart for the empathy it gave.
In a simple way, it's about the aftermath of sexual abuse. Two boys both try to deal with this in their own ways. It isn't really about that, however. It's about the way we try to make meaning out of terrible things, to make them make sense. I really admire this film's courage and honesty.
In Time (2011)
Unwatchable
The premise of this is basically "omggg what if time was literally a commodity". From this half-baked idea comes a confusing, shallow and silly film. It doesn't have the intelligence to interrogate how such a world would really unfold. There are too many plot holes to name in that regard. It doesn't even really matter though - what it does is just treat time like it is the same as money: everyone wants it and almost everyone doesn't have enough of it. Everyone is hustling for it. So this is just like any other "get rich or die trying" film. The time stuff is not really important except as a gimmick.
This could lead to an anti-capitalist take that looks at why we are all (forced to be) so obsessed with money. Except it can't do that because Justin Timberlake's character loves fast expensive cars, sharp suits, rich ladies and luxury casinos. The film idolises these things in a totally uncritical way. So it is saying "money is greaaaaat get rich and buy cars". While also half trying to say "the way our society thinks about money is bad." Except the film doesn't know how that is bad, exactly, except that it means not everyone in the world gets to drive a Porsche.
Basically it is dumb and thoughtless. And conceptual sci fi can't afford to be that, because you watch it to try to understand an idea of a new world. If you are an educated adult who likes concept sci fi, I would not watch this under any circumstances.
Influencer (2022)
Shallower Than It Thinks it Is
The film is generally competent and well-made and the acting holds up. The landscapes of Thailand are beautiful and what works very well is the loneliness and clinical cool of the sort of high end luxury resorts the influencers of the title stay in. There are notes of a film like Lost in Translation in that sense of dislocation of clueless foreign visitors in very lonely jobs, which the film uses to advance in creating the suspense and horror that drives it forward.
Unfortunately, the basic premise seems to me to be that a less conventionally attractive girl (who is in fact actually very, very beautiful) wants to take revenge on privileged blonde all-American girls and exploit them just as they exploit her country. The film can't decide if she is the villain or hero. It doesn't seem to have the strength of its convictions (if it even has any) to put together a proper argument about influencer culture. And her motivations are not explained well. So I was left thinking that it was almost something, but not quite. I still enjoyed it and I don't exactly not recommend it. I just don't believe it comes together into anything much.