The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then The Bigfoot (2019) - Movie Review

I love movies like this. Well, to be more accurate, I love movie titles like this. The ones that are direct and to the point about what they’re about, or that are so outright bizarre that they stick in the mind regardless of the film’s actual content, or the rare instance of both at the same time. However, the title itself is accurate in terms of content, its tone is another story. Whatever you think this movie is going to be like, you’re probably on the wrong track.

The Last Laugh (2019) - Movie Review

As I’ve gotten into in past reviews, there is something rather irksome about how older actors are treated in recent films. For every film willing to show that these old dogs still got some bite, there’s something close to a dozen that use ‘old = funny’ as its sole blueprint and burn away dignity for the sake of cheap yuks. Not to say that this is a one-sided aspect, since there is definitely some ‘stopped giving a fuck’ behind why certain actors choose those particular scripts (either that or they’re raising money for the grandkids), or that there isn’t any comedy to be mined out of the older generation, same as any other generation; just that the approach for the most part leaves a lot to be desired.

Palm Beach (2019) - Movie Review

With how often I’ve gotten into class divides and the frictions between the haves and have-nots in these reviews, I get the feeling I should have problems with this film right off the bat just on principle. Set in the titular Northern Beaches suburb, basically one of the poshest places in my section of the world, the story follows a group of relatively well-off older people and their struggles with growing old and the relationships they’ve made over their lifetimes. ‘Woes of the upper class’ is the kind of thing that should instantly set off my bullshit detectors, and yet, that wasn’t really a problem for me. If anything, I wish it was more egregious along those lines because that would mean actually getting a reaction out of me.

Poms (2019) - Movie Review

As someone who frequently watches and reviews all manner of films on this blog, the first question in response to most if not all of them is fairly straight-forward: Who was this made for? Whether it was made with my suburban early-20’s demographic in mind or otherwise, who is a given film meant to appeal to? More to the point, is it any good at doing the appealing? Today’s film is a relatively simple answer to that, the older demographic, but that question nonetheless persists because, frankly, I’m not even sure if the filmmakers themselves knew who they were aiming for.

Swimming With Men (2019) - Movie Review

Growing up is difficult. Growing old, even more so. The mindset that aging can put people in can make for great works of cinema, but unfortunately, this film isn’t one of them. Based on the 2010 documentary Men Who Swim (making this the third film I’ve covered this year that’s based on a pre-existing piece of cinema, after Fighting With My Family and Hotel Mumbai), this film has its material cut out for it with a story about a group of older men who form a synchronised swimming team and compete on the international level in Milan. However, both as a dramatisation of actual events and as a piece of drama on its own, this fails to do much more than swim in circles.