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Barty2811
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Reviews
The Gloaming (2020)
Beautiful but empty and cliched
The only five-star performance is that of the incredibly beautiful Tasmanian landscape. The story is pretentious and ultimately too neatly sown up at the last episode, an episode where one pleaded to be put out of one's misery with more false endings than the final chapter of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The dialogue was stilted, awkward, the story line strived hard to have some of the pagan horror of Midsommor or The Wickerman with none of the authentic feel of those movies and the character's motivations and actions too predictable.
I see there are a couple of ten star reviews in this page. Clearly from people associated with the production - which would probably encompass at least twenty per cent of the Tasmanian population.
Finally - the sound quality for the dialogue was really poor and the actor playing the 14 year old daughter of the main detective was so atrocious at acting one can only surmise she was someone in the production company's niece or neighbour or selected only on the basis of her looks. Given this was a fairly essential role, this let down the entire cast.
Three Summers (2017)
Embarrassing, awkward, naive and simplistic rubbish.
Oh dear. That this was written and directed by someone - Ben Elton - that I used to love and admire so much is bitterly disappointing. It has all the hallmarks of a twee, naive Australian comedy that can be done entertainingly - witness "The Castle" or "Muriel's Wedding" - but is more often than not a cringe-worthy embarrassment filled with poor dialogue, manufactured awkward script and atrocious acting.
Ben Elton is for me the man who saved Blackadder - his input into Series 2 lifted the show and who displayed socially progressive views early in his career, but this bloated, embarrassing thief of time is indicative of how far Elton has fallen.
I can't fault the actors: they had such appalling dialogue I swear I could see in their eyes a fear and horror that their careers could be over as the words left their lips.
I am fully supportive of the themes in the film - the need for kindness and compassion in society, taking care of refugees and supporting Aboriginal land rights but the absolute lack of subtlety and the preaching smarmy way these things were delivered made me recoil.