Killers Of The Flower Moon (2023) - Movie Review

After what happened when I looked at The Irishman, I don’t want to belabour the point about having issues with films with longer run times. Or, to be more accurate, I don’t want to spend most of this review bitching about my attention span issues as if that’s the fault of the filmmakers. I’ll admit that there are nuances to the binge-watching vs. epic film argument that both sides tend to leave out, but after putting a near-three-hour film at the top of my favourite films list for last year (not to mention finally getting around to the Extended Editions of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy earlier this year), I want to give this film an honest chance that isn’t hindered by my own twitchiness. Or my ongoing indifference towards most Westerns.

The Drover's Wife: The Legend Of Molly Johnson (2022) - Movie Review

Something keeps telling me I shouldn’t be as down on Westerns as I have been in the past. The reason for its cultural and artistic appeal, even to this day, is out of a sense of moral ambiguity. Of a land untamed by man, unchained by law, where the only way to make things right is to right them for one’s self. Sure, its presence in American and even Australian folklore can feed into certain power fantasies that shouldn’t apply in societies that keep insisting that they are bound by rules of law… but as someone who tends to feel less safe, rather than more, whenever law enforcement officers are nearby, even I can understand the draw of that kind of story.

Of course, that runs into the problem of who has been holding the pen when writing those stories. It’s a period in time when men were damn-near encouraged to take the law into their own hands… but only the men, and even then, only some of them get the benefit of doubt in altercations with firearms. As I got into when I reviewed Sweet Country, there’s a thick vein of hypocrisy in our own country’s glorification of the image of the outlaw, as they were (and in many ways still are) willing to denigrate for embodying a different variety of that same image. This is the reason why Revisionist Westerns exist in the first place, and it’s why this particular one managed to grab my attention and keep it.

News Of The World (2021) - Movie Review

I get the feeling that if I keep actively seeking out Westerns like this, my reputation is going to shift from “guy who won’t stop bitching about movies with talking animals in them” to “if even this guy likes this Western, it’s gotta be good”. I guess I’m just trying to break the barrier of this not being my cup of tea as far as genre settings go, and still being able to dissect them efficiently as I (at least try to) do with any other kind of film on here. Well, banking on Tom Hanks in another warm and comforting lead role certainly helps with that, but honestly, this is easily one of the best Westerns I’ve seen all year. And it’s not as if this is all that fresh or creative with its setting either.

The Power Of The Dog (2021) - Movie Review

The chances of me being able to get into a Western are about as the same as the average person liking Bender’s cooking: Unless there’s something wild and possibly psychedelic is mixed in there, it’s probably not gonna happen. But this is another one of those films that I’ve been hearing a lot of great things about over the last month, and while I’m still going in with a mild disinterest in the genre as a whole, I’m at least willing to give it a chance on its own terms, rather than making it adhere to my own. It coming from a filmmaker as beloved as Jane Campion definitely helps with that, but just bear in mind that I’m not exactly the target audience for such stories. Or, at least, that’s what I thought going into this.

Prisoners Of The Ghostland (2021) - Movie Review

Yep, we’re still on the crazy train, and what’s more, we’re picking back up with the regular conductor of said train with another Nic Cage starring role. And I am once again in awe of him being able to find productions that fit perfectly into his extremely idiosyncratic wheelhouse. This film is the English-language debut of Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono and, far as I can ascertain, this is the first time Cage has worked on a mainly-Japanese production. But much like the film they have built around themselves, their act of cultural exchange makes perfect sense. After all, crazy surpasses any and all language barriers.

Cry Macho (2021) - Movie Review

Before we actually get into the film in question, I need to get into the circumstances by which I saw this film in the first place. Partly as a means of full disclosure, but mainly because this is something of a first for this blog.

So, I got an email from one of NBCUniversal’s publicists, who offered me an in-season pass to this film for a review. That itself isn’t the unique part; this is actually fairly standard for most of the assignments I get from FilmInk. Except this isn’t through FilmInk. For whatever reason, the publicist contacted me directly to arrange this. As much as I want to crack jokes about how desperate they must be for official write-ups if they’re reaching out to this middle-of-nowhere blog for a review, or that they obviously didn’t see my last review for an Eastwood movie if they were expecting a glowing endorsement… man, getting recognised like this after all these years makes me quite happy, and I’d like to extend my thanks to Universal for reaching out. Although bear in mind that I’m not going to let that colour my opinion of the film itself.

Had I not been contacted and essentially given a free ticket to see this, I likely would have skipped over this feature entirely. I’m basically done with Clint Eastwood at this point. I don’t know how much more I can take of the guy trying to take down bogeymen only he can see (like he did at the Republican National Convention in 2012). I don’t want to see more from Mr. “My god is bigger than your statistics”. But hey, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I went and saw the movie… and was thankful that it was nothing like the material I’ve come to associate with the filmmaker in recent years.

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.

The Crime Boss (Arkansas) (2020) - Movie Review

Merely seeing an actor’s body of work isn’t always enough to predict the kind of stories they’ll want to tell if they step behind the camera. Watching Jordan Peele’s sitcom and sketch-com work doesn’t exactly feel like the lead-up to becoming the man currently leading the charge for black horror in the mainstream. Ben Stiller’s frequently-frothy leading man roles feel a bit out of step with his penchant for tearing the entertainment industry several new ones as a director. And in the case of today’s film, seeing Clark Duke as the nerdy Jacob in Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (the only close-to-watchable part of that entire flick) certainly didn’t prepare me for his first step into writing/producing/directing to be this Southern-fried trailer park neo-noir.

Sweet Country (2018) - Movie Review

Australia doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to dealing with non-whites. Our country is responsible for some of the worst human rights violations in the Western world, both past and present, and nowhere is that more evident than in the historical treatment of Aboriginal Australians. The people we classified as native fauna long before we ever deemed them human, with our predecessors doing their damnedest to breed them out of existence to try and erase any evidence that we weren’t the first people to inhabit this land. This open sore in our history, one that most seem determined to ignore into absolution, ends up serving as a brilliant backdrop for this Aussie take on the Western cinematic genre.

The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018) - Movie Review

 

As someone who has gone on record about being rather lukewarm with both the Coen brothers and the entire Western genre, this review is going to prove a little tricky. Doubly so because we’re dealing with an anthology film, the kind of fare that doesn’t exactly lend itself well to cohesion. There’s gonna be duds, there’s gonna be winners, and even then, that’s if you’re lucky; most of the time, it’s a collection of middling stories that wouldn’t be able to warrant a separate release, much less stand on their own alongside each other. Well, with all three ducks lined up in a row, I am thankful to report that this turns out good. Like, really damn good.

Sicario: Day Of The Soldado (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: After discovering a possible link between the Mexican cartels controlling the U.S./Mexico border and a string of stateside terrorist attacks, the U.S. government is prepared to take special measures to control the problem. To that ends, CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) brings Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) in to create some chaos among the cartels and, hopefully, put a stop to the terrorists they're smuggling across the border.

Wind River (2017) - Movie Review

The plot: Wildlife tracker Cory (Jeremy Renner), while on a routine hunt, discovers the body of a dead Native America woman in the snow. As she alerts the residents of the surrounding reservation of Wind River, in particular the victim’s father Martin (Gil Birmingham), FBI agent Jane (Elizabeth Olsen) is brought in to help with the investigation. As she and Cory try to figure who was responsible for the death, they are confronted with just how dangerous this land can be.

The Dark Tower (2017) - Movie Review

We’re going to be getting quite a few adaptations from the written horror legend Stephen King this year. I’m going to cover them as I do any other film, except I’m doing to do something a little different with these. Along with going over the individual merits of the films themselves as per usual, I’m also going to take this time to go over King’s own strengths as a writer, how they present themselves in his works, and ultimately how well these films stand up as a continuation of his ethos. And oh boy, do we have a doozy to start out with.

 

After being in development hell for many years, only truly getting off the ground thanks to everyone’s favourite hack Akiva Goldsman, to say this film hasn’t been well-received would undermine the sheer apathy that this has generated so far. Anyone who has read through my reviews for quote-unquote “boring” films in the past should know that failure to engage often ends up being a bigger sin than just being aggravating or thematic heinous. But is that truly what we get here? Let’s take our first dip in the King pool and find out.

Logan (2017) - Movie Review

When I reviewed X-Men: Apocalypse, I made mention of the series’ standing in the annals of comic book film history. Today, I get into what I believe is the reason why the original film and its follow-ups are as important as they are. And oddly enough, it’s all down to a single character: Wolverine. While there are definitely arguments that can be made regarding the decision to take the X-Men team as a whole and create a story largely devoted to only one of them, Hugh Jackman’s performance blended so well with the character that, for the last 17 years, it’s been near-impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. As the avatar of the new guard of comic book filmmaking, one built on true character pathos and subtextual themes of prejudice and isolation, he did what was asked of him almost perfectly.

 

With this in mind, the news of what will be Jackman’s swan song as the Canadian berserker definitely reached the geek community with a very heavy heart, something bolstered by how Patrick Stewart was also bowing out with this film as well. So, not only is this the requiem for two of the most popular comic character in the comic book film sub-genre but also for the very team that gave them their prominence in the first place. Very few films have this much weighing on their success and, from the critical reactions so far, that weight was delivered back and then some. But what did I think of it?

Hell Or High Water (2016) - Movie Review

Last year, one of the bigger critical successes was the harrowing war thriller Sicario. It also represented one of the few times when I met the critical consensus not just in opinion, but in the magnitude of that opinion. Sicario, structurally, was easily the best film of the year and all of its individual pieces were genius on their own and created sheer magic when brought together. Since almost everyone involved already laudable careers to fall back on, I sincerely hoped that writer Taylor Sheridan would also stick around. I mean, if that was his first attempt, I legitimately can’t wait to see what he’s cooked up for us this time.

The Magnificent Seven (2016) - Movie Review

Even in the realms of cinematic remakes, this is a rather unique ouroborosian situation. While you are quickly Googling that word, I’ll get into why this is. Back when I looked at Slow West, I made brief mention of the relationship between Japanese and Western cinema and here is where we crash head-first into one of the first branches on that tree. Based on the Akira Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai, the original Magnificent Seven is a seminal staple of Old Hollywood and set in place an action blueprint of the rag-tag team of characters that come together to fight a great foe that would be copied verbatim for decades to follow. If you’ve ever watched A Bug’s Life, then you have a pretty good idea of the formula. With that in mind, and the fact that this is a reimagining of a remake of a definitive piece of cinema (all of which has sprouted its own niches and sub-genres in their wake), this could prove a tricky one. It is also, based solely on the trailer, one of the few films this year that I have genuinely been anxious to see for myself. Time to dig in and see how this holds up, considering this film has a lot that it needs to prove.

Jane Got A Gun (2016) - Movie Review

The Hateful Eight (2016) - Movie Review

No other singular person in the world of cinema has given more credence to the importance of the screenwriter than Quentin Tarantino. He’s basically an alternate reality version of Randal from Clerks who decided that, rather than bitching about how shit movies are nowadays, actually did something about it and began making his own. After starting off his career with a loud bang with the festival success of Reservoir Dogs, he continued to carve a name for himself with his unique approach to character writing and his homage-heavy fan-boy sensibilities as a story-teller. Unless we’re talking about the film-about-nothing Death Proof or the comedic abomination that is It’s Pat, you’d be hard-pressed to find a film in his filmography that is abjectly bad. So, naturally, when news hit about his latest release, weather reports also came in of a tidal wave of fan-boy drool that threatened to destroy the world. Then there was news of Tarantino taking the film on a roadshow screening tour of Australia, in crisp 70MM film stock. Would probably lose my buff card if I didn’t attend something like that, so bear in mind that everything that follows may differ from the traditional theatrical release as the version I watched was an extended cut. This is The Hateful Eight.

The Revenant (2016) - Movie Review

After how much I dug Birdman last year, I was definitely looking forward to seeing more work from director Alejandro González Iñárritu. So, in prep for this release, I checked out his other filmography… and noticed something disconcerting. While I undoubtedly consider Birdman to be the best film he’s done to date, it’s also the most unlike everything else he’s made so far. Iñárritu’s usual method of story-telling is with numerous interweaving character arcs, some of them seemingly completely disconnected from each other, to convey a specific theme. Birdman, by contrast, is so linear that it is shot and edited to look like a single continuous take (for the most part) and focuses mainly on a single character. It’s kind of like claiming to be a fan of Darren Aronofsky, but saying your favourite film of his is The Wrestler; it isn’t exactly the best representation of the man’s work as a whole. With this new information, I began to anticipate today’s release more shakily than I was expecting to. However, indicative of standard oeuvre or not, I will give this film the benefit of the doubt regardless; I’m not going to just badmouth a Leo DiCaprio film purely based on principle.

The Good Dinosaur (2015) - Movie Review

Since we’re at the point where Disney has such a monopoly on the world’s entertainment, making a statement like “They’re having a good year” would be rather redundant. It’d be like saying General Electric has made a profit; it sets off ‘no shit’ alarms pretty quickly. That said, even for a company as prolific as Disney, this has been an amazing year for them: The continuing success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Inside Out, the latest iteration of Cinderella and let’s not forget the hype singularity that is The Force Awakens. And even outside of their commercial write-ups, their average for quality has been far better than previous years; hell, my top two films of the year are both Disney properties. So, considering all that, I can think of no better way to close out the year than with a look at another release from the House of the Mouse. So, for the first part of the finale of my insane month of reviews, let’s take a look at Pixar’s second release for the year: This is The Good Dinosaur.