Aftersun (2023) - Movie Review

We never know people as well as we think we do. No matter how close we get to someone else, or how honest they are to us about what makes them tick, there will always be this invisible wall that will prevent total understanding from taking place. In the moment, it’s possible to overlook this and just take joy out of being with that person, getting to share experiences with them and connect with as much of them as can make it through that wall. But as they drift apart, as people inevitably do for one reason or another, it eventually reaches a point where all that is left is the memory. Those imperfect, incomplete moments that have already been captured. It can be a source of great comfort, or possibly great pain, to reflect on those moments as a means of reconnecting with that person, albeit asymmetrically, but recollection is a funny thing. It’s not always as we remember it.

The Son (2023) - Movie Review

Following on from their last collaboration The Father, a film so good that it nearly topped my Best Of 2021 list, writer/director Florian Zeller and co-writer Christopher Hampton have now continued their dramatising of the effects of mental illness with a new film, also based on one of Zeller’s stageplays. This one, however, hasn’t been getting the same glowing rapport; in fact, opinions on this film have been middling at best. Now, as I’ll get into, I can definitely see where the negativity is coming from and even agree with some of it… but man, when this film hits its stride, it reminds me of just how hard The Father hit on first watching it.

Glorious (2022) - Movie Review

A man comes face-to-face with a demigod. Well, as face-to-face as you can get to a being whose mere presence would drive the man mad. What seemed like a chance encounter was in fact ordained by fate, for the demigod has a tremendous favour to ask of the man. A favour that could mean saving the entire universe, or dooming it at the hands of an even greater God. Now, have all of this take place in a disgusting truck stop restroom, and have the man (Ryan Kwanten) be a viciously hungover man depressed over a recent break-up, and you have the plot for this absolute gem of a film.

On The Count Of Three (2022) - Movie Review

cw: suicide, mental illness, child abuse

Yep. We’re not quite done with the heavy shit just yet. And what’s more, said heavy shit is even more intrinsic to this film than it was with Smile. The literal first image of the film is of Val (Jerrod Carmichael) and Kevin (Christopher Abbott) pointing guns at each other’s heads, ready to fulfil a suicide pact. The title is the countdown to them actually doing it.

So what if I were to tell you that this film is absolutely hilarious?

Why I'm Not Reviewing Shazam! (2019)

I’m not reviewing this movie. I’m not watching this movie at the cinema. I’m likely to never go near this movie at all. Yep, for the first time in this blog’s history, I’m instating an official boycott for a movie. Wonder Wheel and Underworld: Blood Wars may have gotten me in the mindset of boycotting whatever came next, but this is the first time I’ve actively done so. The reason why is both complicated and rather depressing, so let’s try and go into this as even-handedly as possible.

Inside Out (2015) - Movie Review