Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets (2017) - Movie Review

Outside of Luc Besson being an idiosyncratic director (shorthand for “he has his own style that I am unable to put into words”), I don’t have anything new to say about the guy that I haven’t already said in reviews past. As such, I’ll forgo my usual introduction and just get right into this thing because I am legit excited to be talking about this movie.

A Cure For Wellness (2017) - Movie Review

As I’ve explained many times before on this blog, there are few things in media that I love more than psychological thrillers. Maybe it’s because I view film as an inherently psychological work, given how it exists to convince the audience that its frequently absurd world is actually real, but I have a real liking for films that set out to mess with people’s heads. I’ve covered the good (Oculus), the bad (Trance) and the outright bizarre (Lost River) over the last couple years, and even at their worst I’d like to think that I’ve shown a certain leniency with this sub-genre. Naturally, when the trailers start rolling out for Gore Verbinski’s latest, I have to admit that I was quite captivated. With its immediately-apparent visual splendour and familiar but still interesting premise, it definitely seemed to tickle that itch for me.

 

However, one thing that I am learning very quickly is that this is going to be a weird year for expectations in cinema, and this is definitely going to be an example of that. So, while I roar my lungs out in the Angry Dome, let’s get into this shite already.

Ballerina (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: In 19^th century France, orphan girl Félicie (Elle Fanning) hopes to escape the orphanage and go to Paris to become a ballerina. With the help of her best friend and hopeful inventor Victor (Dane DeHaan), they makes their way to Paris. As they chase their respective dreams, with Félicie accepting help from Odette (Carly Rae Jepson), a caretaker at the Paris Opera Ballet school, she finds herself fighting against rival dancer Camille (Maddie Ziegler) and her mother Regine (Julie Khaner) to keep her dream alive.