King Richard (2022) - Movie Review

I was worried that they were going to balls this one up. A biopic about the Williams sisters, tennis players so famous that even I know who they are, told from the point-of-view of their father and coach. Not gonna lie, as soon as I saw that setup and the Will Smith-heavy marketing for the thing, I assumed we’d be in for another Dangal, where the attempt to be inspiring with the dramatisation of a real-life woman’s sporting story gets railroaded to give all the emphasis to a particular man in her life. And while that is definitely the perspective given, I’d argue that this works out much better than in Dangal’s case, as using that specific perspective affords the film many opportunities for resonating material, almost all of which are utilised.

The Unforgivable (2021) - Movie Review

After how well the remake of The Guilty turned out, I was more than willing to give this film a chance. An American remake of a British TV miniseries, starring Sandra Bullock in a consciously-against-type role of a woman who has just been released from a 20-year stint in prison for murder. It certainly caught my attention just from that setup, and I can already see all manner of possibilities for thoughtful translation between cultures. But unfortunately, just about every major decision here feels backwards.

The Accountant (2016) - Movie Review

Some of my long(er)-time readers may have noticed that I am not one to shy away from certain aspects of mental disorders. Specifically, when it comes to how modern-day cinema portrays said disorders. As someone who freely admits to using movie-watching as a form of personal therapy (less risky to lash out at a piece of fiction than at an actual person), seeing films use mental conditions that I personally relate to can be a big part of that. Some films do an incredible job with them like Inside Out, Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children and X+Y, and some can make a complete dog’s breakfast out of it like Mommy, Love Is Now and the more recent headache of Vaxxed. Today, we have another addition to that canon, except this is something that I don’t think exists in that great a number out there in the larger cinematic world. And quite frankly, we need more films like this.