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.

The Wonder (2022) - Movie Review

This has the single most peculiar opening to any film I’ve reviewed on here. It’s peculiar because this is a period drama that begins with a shot of the sound-stage that the sets in the film are located on, panning across while Niamh Algar narrates about how this is indeed a film and asking the audience to believe in its story as the characters will. There’s an initial pang of worry that this is insecurity showing through on the director's part, similar to Terry Gilliam’s introduction for the film Tideland that essentially begged his audience to regress back to the mind-state of a child in order to understand what was really going on. But that fades away rather quickly because, oddly enough, this ends up being an ideal introduction to this film on two different fronts.

Don't Worry Darling (2022) - Movie Review

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at a film that’s been swallowed whole by its own production drama. Paws Of Fury kinda had that same result, but the drama there was mainly background noise that you’d have to dig for. Don’t Worry Darling, on the other hand? It has been one of, if not the, most talked-about film of the year, and not even for anything do with the film’s content. Hell, the behind-the-scenes drama and marketing gaffs for this could (and has elsewhere) make for its own write-up.

But rather than just fill this review with references to #Spitgate, or how this movie feels like a movie, or hypothesising how much worse this could’ve been if Shia LaBeouf was still in it… well, outside of just mentioning them then, that’s not what I’ll be doing. Partly because, even at its most talked-about, all of this just isn’t that interesting to me (I’m not here for the gossip, I’m here for the movie), but mainly because this film is such a… bizarre creation all on its own that there’s already enough material here.

Black Widow (2021) - Movie Review

“Better late than never” isn’t always the case. And when it comes to Black Widow, the member of the Phase One Avengers in most need of real character development, it arriving so long after that point is rather disheartening. Not to mention out of step with how thought-out the MCU generally is when it comes to story arcs over the span of several features. But now that it’s finally here, and the Marvel status quo is slowly returning after the COVID runaround, I can’t say that I hate it… but I can’t say I’m entirely into it either.

Little Women (2020) - Movie Review

Time to continue with the reheated leftovers of the previous year, consisting mainly of what wasn’t good enough to be released in 2019 (hello, Dolittle) and the remainder of the Oscar nominations that didn’t fit the schedule, and we’re dealing with a legacy remake. I get the feeling that, if not reading the original classic source material, I should have at least glanced at the book’s previous adaptations. However, since there’s six pre-existing films based on this work, one of which done by PureFlix, I don’t particularly feel the need to overplay the story for myself under the pretence of doing research for the new one. I want to give this its fair chance, and after Greta Gerwig’s last success with Lady Bird, I’m more than comfortable with letting this stand on its own. Tl;dr Don’t expect any adaptation comparisons; this is strictly about this version on its own.

Midsommar (2019) - Movie Review

It’s gotten to the point where I take my extended hobby of film critique so seriously that I’ve come to regard films I'm not able to nail down from a single viewing as films that bested me. That defeated me. That managed to break my usual one-and-down reviewing format and took me a second viewing to understand the kind of genius I'm dealing with. Ari Aster's Hereditary is one of those films for me.

It is seriously one of the best horror films of all time, and one I retroactively consider to be in the top 5 for the best films of 2019. It admittedly took a certain YouTuber’s hot take for me to properly get my head around it (link here for said hot take; she explains it far better than I can), but it also turned into a rather humbling experience overall. I don’t plan on making the same mistake twice, however, so as I take a look at Ari Aster’s follow-up, I’m going to give it its full due.

The Commuter (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: Insurance salesman Michael (Liam Neeson) is taking the train home, same as he has done consistently for the last ten years. However, this trip turns out to be decidedly different as he is approached by a mysterious woman (Vera Farmiga) with a proposition. She tells him that someone on the train doesn’t belong, and he has until the end of the line to figure out who it is. As a reward, he will be given $100,000 once he locates the person and places a tracker on their person. As he considers the proposal, it seems that shadowy forces are about to force his hand, and if he doesn’t do as the woman asked, he could end up losing everything.

Lady Macbeth (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: In 1860’s England, Katherine (Florence Pugh) has been sold into marriage to Alexander (Paul Hilton), expected to conceive an heir for him. However, when both he and his demanding father Boris (Christopher Fairbank) leave the estate for a few days on business, Katherine is given a chance to exercise some personal freedom. She takes advantage of the situation, starting a passionate affair with estate worker Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), and she starts to like the idea of acting as her own person. And she will do anything to keep that freedom.