Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (2022) - Movie Review

I don’t know if karma is actually a thing. It’s a nice idea as a general principle, and it would certainly help the world make a bit more sense, but... well, that’s just it: It relies on things in the world having a logical progression to them, and I’m not so sure of that. Bad people get rewarded for their dickery all the time, while those trying to do good often run at a deficit because altruism isn’t exactly a profitable endeavour. We should be good to each other and to ourselves, but that doesn’t mean getting recognised by some nebulous universal force is going to be part of the deal. Not that it isn’t a dream worth striving for, though, and dreams are bountiful when it comes to this particular film.

Misbehaviour (2020) - Movie Review

What is feminism? With how easy it is to caricature basically any and all political movements (even the ones you personally support), it’s just as easy to lose sight of what a given movement stands for when it seems like everyone has their own idea of it. And not all of them are exactly accurate. Feminism especially has this problem in the popular consciousness, encompassing everything from equal rights to #killallmen. Of course, it’s also one of those catch-all terms like Satanism or post-modern Neo-Marxism or The Left™ that gets thrown around by people who basically want to lump everything they don’t approve of into a single category. So it comes as something of a surprise when a mainstream feature like Misbehaviour comes out, which manages to clear the air in rather bracing fashion.

Let Him Go (2020) - Movie Review

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane play a husband-and-wife who live on a ranch in rural Americana. Let’s see how far I get in this review before I start bringing up how crap it was last time this happened on film… dammit. Okay, after Costner genuinely blew me away in Molly’s Game, I’m making it a point to stop completely disregarding the man’s abilities, and even in objectively bad productions like Serenity, Lane still manages to deliver. And to their credit, they are the main anchors that keep the story of this film together… but even that comes with some drawbacks.

Phantom Thread (2018) - Movie Review

 

The latest from auteur Paul Thomas Anderson is a curious venture. The story of a meticulous and rather dickish fashion designer, played by Daniel Day-Lewis in his final film role, it carries a likewise meticulous approach to visuals. Beyond just the immaculate costume design and pristine musical score, there’s an overwhelming sense of the ornate throughout this whole production. It looks, and feels, like few other films I’ve taken time to cover on this blog, for both good and somewhat perplexing reasons.