Oppenheimer (2023) - Movie Review

The existential threat posed by the atomic bomb has always felt like an abstract concept to me. Being born after the bubbling conceptualising of it during WWII, and its position as the final safeguard during the Cold War, I haven’t really considered that kind of devastation as something real. Or, at least, beyond the perplexing optimism of the time that, should one of these bombs go off, the public would be perfectly fine if they just hid under a table with their arms over their heads. Part of my struggle with dealing with media in the context with which it was made (usually when dealing with anything made pre-1995) extends beyond just media and even for actual shit that has happened, and could very well happen again. And yet, for the longest time, I’ve always treated it as something historical, something academic, rather than anything concrete.

Watching this film changed that for me. Big time.

Wild Mountain Thyme (2021) - Movie Review

Much like with The Woman In The Window, the latest from writer/director John Patrick Shanley feels like a film that wants to immediately let the audience know how much of a shambles they’re in for right from the start. Here, that takes the form of opening narration from Christopher Walken as an Irish farmer talking about how he’s already dead, but will stick around because he died in the middle of telling a story. This is the first piece of dialogue we get at about two minutes into this hour-and-a-half feature, and it’s an apt introduction for a film where I am struggling to figure out how anyone even reached this point, let alone thought it was a good idea.

A Quiet Place Part II (2021) - Movie Review

In most circumstances, a sequel that’s just more of the same that made the original what it is can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it serves as one of the only conditions when the advice of Mike Love is a good thing to adhere to ("don’t fuck with the formula"), making sure that what worked last time isn’t tampered with. But on the other hand, if a continuation is going to exist in the first place, there needs to be something new added to the mix, if only to justify the exercise. And with A Quiet Place Part II finally making it to theatres, it feels like a good middle ground between those two ideals, resulting in a film where it being similar to what came before is far from a bad thing.