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Post by Lex Salander on Jul 2, 2017 20:30:11 GMT
My (very messy) review of Tree of Life
Tree of Life was a movie I was curious about. I wanted to see a couple of Terrence Malick movies before seeing his latest film (Song to Song), so that I could get used to his style beforehand, so I decided to start with one of his most well known movies, Tree of Life. I expected to see an unconventional, arty film which is visually beautiful, and I really wouldn’t know how to feel about it afterwards and indeed that’s the movie I ended up with. I was left polarised and confused by the end of the movie but yet I think I like the movie. It’s very difficult to describe my experience with the movie.
Tree of Life is not an easy movie to describe, I think the best way to describe all this is to tell how I felt during the movie. This movie is unconventional to say the least. The first 10 minutes focusses on Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn, during this I didn’t know what to think. I couldn’t really tell what was going on. 20 minutes in, there is a 10 minute segment which pretty much featured the universe being created (there’s no better way of describing it). It focusses on random aspects, stars, meteors, nature, animals, plants, even dinosaurs at one point. I was intrigued by what I saw but didn’t know what to really think. The rest of the movie for the most part focussed on the family (Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Tye Sheridan) as time goes by. At that point, I started to oddly enough like this movie and I was interested in seeing everything progress. After the family segment, I’m not really sure what to think of the movie, I don’t even know what the ending was supposed to mean and represent. I don’t really know what this movie is about (apart from life). The movie does have a lot of monologues throughout the movie, though I didn’t find myself picking up on what they were meaning. I can see how other people would be bored of the movie, it is very slow paced. I only really started being fully engaged after 30 minutes into the movie. But yet there is something about it that I liked, I haven’t yet figured out what it is.
This movie has a lot of talented actors with Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan. They are all pretty good, with Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain being the stand outs as the parents of the family. Even when they aren’t saying anything, it’s easy to see how they feel in certain situations just through their expressions and reactions. Sean Penn doesn’t really get to do much, most of his limited screentime is him just walking around while Terrence Malick follows him around with a camera. With that said, this happens with every actor, a lot of the movie at times just follows the actors/characters around with them having no dialogue and not doing anything that important. I’m guessing that this is what happens with every actor in Terrence Malick movies.
One thing that all people who see this movie will say is that Tree of Life looks absolutely beautiful. Every shot is framed well and looks magnificent. Even the 10 minute ‘creation segment’ was beautiful. I couldn’t tell always what the shots of certain aspects were supposed to represent, but they looked beautiful at the very least. And plus, a lot of the time Malick manages to make the audience feel emotions through his imagery. The only thing directionwise that’s off was a scene with dinosaurs, the CGI looked incredibly fake, embarrassingly bad, and it kinda takes you out of the movie. The soundtrack by Alexandre Desplat was great and really added to the movie.
Tree of Life is not an easily accessible movie. There are a lot of people who really don’t like this movie and find it to be pretentious and boring and I don’t really blame them for thinking this. Tree of Life is different, it’s slow, it’s unconventional. But if you are willing to give it a shot, I recommend watching it. Just know what you are going in for. I myself am not sure about what I had watched but I liked it at a point, it’s difficult to describe why. I get the feeling that Malick’s films are meant to make people feel emotions rather than it be technically good like most movies, not conventionally anyway. I know this review hasn’t been very descriptive of the movie, but honestly that goes to show how unusual of a movie this is.
My review of Tree of Life at my blog at youngcinemabuffs.wordpress.com/2017/07/03/the-tree-of-life-2011-review/
Next review: Probably Green Room
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Post by Lex Salander on Jul 4, 2017 21:36:11 GMT
My review for Una
Una was one of my most anticipated movies of 2016 (however it only really came out for the general audience in 2017). It was mainly the talent involved that had be interested, with Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn, with that level of talent I was interested in seeing their performances (and I’m pretty much willing to watch anything that Rooney Mara is in). Having finally seen Una, I can say that the film is pretty decent on its own, with its direction and writing. But it’s the performances that really makes this movie worth watching.
This film feels like a play, which is fitting since it was based off a play called Blackbird by David Harrower (who also adapted the play into the screenplay for Una). This movie’s pace is very steady and with that slow pace, the movie does lose my interest at points. The film really excels in the scenes between Rooney and Ben and every single one of them are riveting (I’ll get into them later). The scenes that aren’t between them are hit or miss, most of them are fine, but some of them just weren’t as interesting as a lot of the other scenes. You also really need to know that that this is a dialogue driven movie, there’s a lot of scenes where characters would just sit or stand and just talk for a long time. As for how it portrays the paedophile aspect, I personally think it was handled well, you don’t see any of the actions on screen (thankfully) but you hear Una and Ray mention what happened, and the film doesn’t shy away from this disturbing subject matter. It was balanced suitably. Aside from the pacing and some of the less interesting scenes, one other criticism I have is that the ending is a little jarring and sudden. I have a feeling that I know what they were going for but it nonetheless felt a little unsatisfying, perhaps that was what they were intending.
The highlights of Una as I stated before are the performances. First of all we have Rooney Mara delivering one of her best performances yet with Una, and considering the performances she’s given (especially The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Carol), that is saying a lot. Una is a complicavted person, when she tracks down Ray we don’t know her intentions, and that ambigiouty is shown so well by Mara. Every delivery of her lines, every expression and especially the way she conveys so many emotions through just a look, without even needing to say anything is simply excellent. It’s quite frankly a perfect performance. Just as good is Ben Mendelsohn who gives quite possibly his best performance yet. He doesn’t have an easy job, he’s playing a paedophile after all. The filmmakers and Mendelsohn present Ray as human as possible, which to be honest is the only way to really portray this character. Had this not been handled right it could’ve failed badly, but along with the way he’s presented, Ben Mendelsohn truly is incredible in this role, his performance was just as perfect as Rooney’s. The interactions between Rooney and Ben are the highlights of the movie, they shared excellent chemistry and worked off each other incredibly well. Ruby Stokes plays young Una in flashbacks and she is very good in her role, definitely deserves some praise as well. Riz Ahmed is in this movie and while he is good in his role, ultimately his role could be played by anyone.
This film is the directional debut of Benedict Andrews, he is a theatre director and you can really see that, not just in the way the dialogue is presented but the way the film is edited and directed. This film doesn’t have a flashy direction but that’s good, it doesn’t take away from the focus on the actors. Una is also shot very well, I don’t have any issues with the cinematography. The soundtrack, while not that spectacular does give a lot of the scenes an eerie vibe. In fact a lot of the scenes have an eerie, haunting vibe, from the music, to the camera shots, to the editing, and that helped to make many of the scenes tense, even when nothing is happening.
Una is pretty well written and directed well but really the best reason to see Una is for the performances. Both Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn given some of their best performances to date and are absolutely phenomenal. If you can handle the lurid subject matter, I recommend giving Una a watch. I’m not quite sure if I would call it a great movie but it has a lot of great aspects to it, especially the excellent acting.
My review of Una at my blog at youngcinemabuffs.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/una-2017-review/
Ranking of 2017 movies:
1. Logan
2. Wonder Woman
3. Alien Covenant
4. Get Out
5. John Wick: Chapter 2 6. Split 7. Okja
8. The Discovery
9. Una 10. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
11. Fate of the Furious
12. Kong: Skull Island
13. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
14. The Mummy
15. Life
16. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
17. Beauty and the Beast
18. The Lego Batman Movie
Next review: Probably Spider-Man Homecoming
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Post by Lex Salander on Jul 8, 2017 6:39:46 GMT
My review of Spider-Man Homecoming
I will be honest, I really wasn’t that hyped for Spider-Man Homecoming in the lead up to its release. I knew I would see it no matter how it turned out, and it didn’t look bad by any means. But it didn’t really grab my attention like it should’ve. I guess it must’ve been some mediocre marketing because this movie was a lot better than I thought it would be. It was entertaining, the plot is good, the action is good, the villain is great, everything about it is pretty good. It is one of the better films in the MCU.
This is the first Spider-Man film to be based entirely in High School. Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man had that but that wasn’t really focused on like Homecoming does, so this made this film feel more refreshing. This movie is very entertaining. For the first half of the movie it does feel like a enjoyable movie, I never really got bored. However I will admit, I wasn’t really loving it. There aren’t a whole lot of surprises to be had, it is at times familiar in terms of tone and plot to some other MCU films, not that its necessarily a bad thing. The second half was better to me, this film handles the dramatic side of the plot surprisingly well. This movie does have a lot of humour and it hits very well, there aren’t many jokes that disrupt the tone or fall flat. It’s nice to see a MCU movie which is more grounded and less world affecting, by that I mean that Spider-Man isn’t trying to save the world or anything like that. Homecoming is a more personal story, which is nice to see. Despite this movie being the first Spider-Man film set in the MCU and having like Tony Stark in it, it’s still very much grounded and works as its own story. With that said, this movie does set up for future movies. Some of the setups were okay, others were really distracting. There is a reveal in the third act which felt out of place and completely unnecessary. I know a lot of changes really bothered some die hard Spider-Man fans, with the exception of that one reveal (which just felt like unnecessary fanservice) I didn’t have any issues with the changes. There are two end credits scenes, the first was interesting and has me interested in what the Homecoming sequel will be like, the second was quite funny.
Tom Holland is a very different Spider-Man to both Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, which is good, it’s important for each interpretation of a character to be unique and different from previous incarnations. This Spider-Man is young (15 years old), he’s smart, he’s full of energy and he loves being Spider-Man. But to just say that he’s great because he’s ‘fun’ would be a disservice to the movie and Holland. Tom is also great in the emotional scenes as well, and you can really understand how he feels. He really wants to become an Avenger like Tony Stark and that story arc was done very well. The supporting actors were good as well. Jacob Batalon is very entertaining as Ned, Peter’s best friend, Zendaya was also a fun character as Michelle. Other supporting actors like Jon Favreau and Marisa Tomei were also really good. A concern of mine was Robert Downey Jr.’s role in the movie. Fortunately Tony Stark is used very sparingly and it makes a lot of sense that he’s in this movie and worked well for Peter’s arc. He’s not in the movie too much to overshadow Peter but is in it enough that he is important. Another concern I had was Michael Keaton as the Vulture, the villain of the film. The MCU has a reputation of having mostly just okay villains, with only a few genuinely great villains. While Vulture looked great in the trailers, I couldn’t help but think that Keaton would be wasted. That’s not the case here, Vulture is one of the best villains in the entire MCU series. A lot of time he isn’t wearing the Vulture costume, its just him and Keaton did a great job at portraying that. In fact his best scene was without the costume, you’ll know exactly which scene I’m referring to. Along with feeling like a threat, Vulture is quite a human villain. Without spoiling anything, Vulture has some understandable motives and you can totally see why he does what he does. Vulture is definitely one of the MCU villains yet. There are some other minor villains in the movie and while not great, they were good in their roles. There are some actors who are in Homecoming, potentially to set them up for future movies, examples are with Michael Mando and Donald Glover. They were fine in their moments onscreen but they felt out of place as they really don’t do much in the movie.
The action was really good and it was very entertaining. Some of the scenes at times were shot at night however, and at times it was hard to tell what is going on. The CGI for the most part looked good but at times did look a little fake especially with the Spider-Man costume (he still looked better than he did in Civil War) but most of it is fine. The soundtrack by Michael Giaachino aside from the opening credits and Vulture’s theme was passable but forgettable.
Spider-Man Homecoming was really good. I really liked the new take they had on Spider-Man, I loved the villain, it is entertaining overall and I had a blast with it. It is definitely one of the better Spider-Man movies and also one of the better films in the MCU. I am now on board with seeing future Spider-Man films in the MCU.
My review of Spider-Man Homecoming at my blog at youngcinemabuffs.wordpress.com/2017/07/08/spider-man-homecoming-2017-review/
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Post by renoh on Jul 9, 2017 16:14:42 GMT
I saw Manifesto yesterday, I’ve never seen something like this before except in plays, or in museums exhibitions or live art, I’m so glad I only watched the trailer and nothing else about this movie before seeing it yesterday, it was much better like this :D . I had no idea who else was on it and this was a great surprise. What Cate did here, must be a dream job for any actor, i really hope one day Rooney gets the chance to do a movie like this. Concerning the cinematography, some of the stories were more visually crafted than others, I’ve never seen a movie with images this sharp and crisp, not all the scenes were like that though, maybe they used different cameras. Some of the shoots are a visual delight.
I’m still processing everything, some of contents of monologues were tedious, but at the same time funny in the context they were placed. That statement "Art requires truth, not sincerity" makes sense there. I guess my fav part was the “nothing is original”.
It seems the audience were hardcore movie fans because they stayed there imnotised seeing the credits till the end, seemed that they were not breathing or they were just still processing everything :lol2: .
8/10
PS They Showed the A ghost story trailer before the movie. It looked great in the big screen :casey1: .
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Post by renoh on Jul 10, 2017 4:23:09 GMT
I finally saw Megan Leavey on Saturday, yes I saw 2 movies on the same day because on the rain… it was a very touching story, they were right about that this is the best of Kate so far. During her graduation scene, for a sec I thought it was Rooney, she looked just like her, and I’ve never found any physical resemblance between the two, also I remembered a sec later that she was her sister  . This will open the doors for Kate to finally get better leading roles :  . The theatre was packed. 7/10 Watched Okja a few hours ago, AMAZING!!! What a joy to watch!!! Mija is super girl!!! Mirando is Monsanto but with animals instead of veggies? :lol2: … both awful. 9/10 |
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Post by RedSparrow on Jul 10, 2017 14:12:02 GMT
Just saw The Witch for the first time. Quite speechless :explode:
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Post by LaraQ on Jul 10, 2017 15:40:51 GMT
Just saw The Witch for the first time. Quite speechless :explode: It`s so good isn`t it?.I went to see it when it came out it last year and I was so impressed.It`s beautifully shot , really well acted, by Anya Taylor Joy in particular, and genuinely scary.I can`t remember the last time I felt so unnerved watching a film, that final scene....... not to mention Black Phillip.  :nervous: |
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Post by RedSparrow on Jul 10, 2017 19:23:09 GMT
Just saw The Witch for the first time. Quite speechless :explode: It`s so good isn`t it?.I went to see it when it came out it last year and I was so impressed.It`s beautifully shot , really well acted, by Anya Taylor Joy in particular, and genuinely scary.I can`t remember the last time I felt so unnerved watching a film, that final scene....... not to mention Black Phillip. :nervous: So effective, I'm still unable to shake it off. The Babadook had a similar effect on me (which is probably my favorite horror/mindfuck film in recent years). Both the films slowly and quietly get really personal  , and that's what so scary about them. Though the effect of The Babadook was a lot more stronger on me, The Witch is a close second. It quietly shocks you in a way that you can't tell what hit you, and leaves you feeling a bit unsettled and restless. |
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Post by RedSparrow on Jul 19, 2017 8:01:56 GMT
Watched Frantz and The Salesman for the first time a few days ago. Frantz was quite incredible (would highly recommend it). As for The Salesman, I'm still unsure what that was but it was very effective. Any Farhadi is a gift honestly.
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Post by Lex Salander on Jul 21, 2017 7:11:25 GMT
My review of Green Room
Green Room was a movie I heard a lot about, countless people were praising this movie. The premise had potential and it had a good cast with Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots and Patrick Stewart. It’s the first film by Jeremy Saulnier that I’ve seen, and from what I’ve heard he is a great director. Having seen Green Room, I can say that because of its excellent direction, it is a pretty solid movie overall. However I think I might be missing out on something, as aside from that aspect, this movie wasn’t that great to me.
Green Room’s plot isn’t really anything special. A group of protagonists are stuck in a room with the antagonists trying to break into that room and kill them. It has a very simple plot but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. With that said, I must’ve been missing something on this movie because not a lot of it really connected with me. I just really wasn’t that interested in the movie, plot or characters to be perfectly honest. The characters are fine and do their jobs but they aren’t that interesting or engaging. I only really started somewhat engaging with the movie when the characters are put in the Green Room situation, and even then I wasn’t always paying that much attention. Not to say that this movie is boring because it wasn’t (aside from a lot of the first act), but I only really payed attention whenever it was an ‘action’ sequence, and considering this is a thriller, I feel like I should be more engaged in the movie throughout, even when nothing is happening. The writing isn’t bad, it’s just okay, it’s the writing of a typical above average thriller.
The characters really weren’t really that great or interesting but the acting in this movie is generally good. The main cast weren’t all on the same level, the best of them were Anton Yelchin and Imogen Poots, those two were really good in their roles. Patrick Stewart plays the lead of the neo-nazi gang. He is good in the movie but he didn’t really leave as much of an impression as I thought he should. Stewart acts his role very well but I feel like he should’ve been presented as being more threatening than he actually ended up being because aside from him being played by Patrick Stewart, ultimately I barely remember his character.
While the plot and story didn’t really interest me that much, I will praise the direction by Jeremy Saulnier, it really is the reason to see this movie. The cinematography is excellent, every scene is framed greatly, this movie just looks perfect. I’d even go so far as to say that his direction is flawless. This film also doesn’t hold back, when it’s violent, it is really violent, and the intense scenes are very tense. So I have to give Saulnier a lot of praise, because his direction is what makes the movie work.
Green Room is okay, but it’s the fantastic direction that moves this movie from being okay to being decent. I didn’t love this movie like other people did, writing-wise this movie just didn’t connect with me that much, or interest me for that matter. Maybe a rewatch might change things but from the first watch, it was decent, that’s it. While Green Room wasn’t as great as I thought it would be, I think it’s worth a watch if you’re interested. The direction, as I said, was truly excellent, so if there’s anything that Green Room has done it has shown off Jeremy Saulnier’s talents, and it has interested me enough to check out his other movies.
For those who loved Green Room, what about it did you love so much? I'm curious.
Review of Green Room at my blog at youngcinemabuffs.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/green-room-2016-review/
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Post by LaraQ on Jul 22, 2017 11:49:10 GMT
I went to see Dunkirk last night and oh my God what a stunning film.It`s beautifully shot and almost unbearably tense.This is Nolan`s masterpiece.You must watch it on IMAX if you can.It`s also the first absolute lock for best picture/director this year. :clap1:  :woohoo2: |
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Post by mortimer605 on Jul 22, 2017 17:57:51 GMT
I went to see Dunkirk last night and oh my God what a stunning film.It`s beautifully shot and almost unbearably tense.This is Nolan`s masterpiece.You must watch it on IMAX if you can.It`s also the first absolute lock for best picture/director this year. :clap1: :woohoo2:
Hopefully this will work in the same way for me as did for you because I really love World War II/historical movies. My problem with Nolan is that I never really cared for any characters in his movies  . Perhaps Dunkirk will change that, we'll see.
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Post by RedSparrow on Jul 22, 2017 19:51:19 GMT
I went to see Dunkirk last night and oh my God what a stunning film.It`s beautifully shot and almost unbearably tense.This is Nolan`s masterpiece.You must watch it on IMAX if you can.It`s also the first absolute lock for best picture/director this year. :clap1: :woohoo2: How was Harry?  |
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Post by Lex Salander on Jul 23, 2017 0:32:19 GMT
I went to see Dunkirk last night and oh my God what a stunning film.It`s beautifully shot and almost unbearably tense.This is Nolan`s masterpiece.You must watch it on IMAX if you can.It`s also the first absolute lock for best picture/director this year. :clap1: :woohoo2: I'm seeing it tonight. I can't wait. |
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Post by Lex Salander on Jul 23, 2017 0:32:59 GMT
Just saw The Witch for the first time. Quite speechless :explode: I had the same reaction. I guess I kinda liked it but at the same time didn't really know what to think of it. |
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