Film Review 171 – Crew

Watched: 26th April 2024

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

–

   This is the first modern Bollywood film I’ve ever seen, and watching it in the cinema was such an amazing experience. The comedy, the acting, the visuals, the setting, everything is so over-the-top without ever veering, in my opinion, into ridiculousness. The plot of Crew is nothing that amazing – it’s your typical kind of screwball comedy, with a dash of crime caper mixed in – but I think it’s really solidified by some pretty grounding and comedic performances from its three leading ladies. It’s certainly whetted my appetite to see more Bollywood films in the future, that’s for sure.

–

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 6th May 2024: https://boxd.it/6lRXJH

Film Review 168 – Monkey Man

Watched: 5th April 2024

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

–

   Hurtling through things at a breakneck pace, Monkey Man is, in all honesty, a pretty impressive directorial debut for Dev Patel. As the titular character, he’s also not bad – he captures Kid’s haunted, hunted soul with a lot of gusto, balancing the character’s trauma and how it manifests (such as in that very good bathroom scene) with the fire constantly burning in him, the rage that keeps him going when everything else is gone. As a work of social commentary, the film is also quite insightful, even though it took me a while to figure out exactly what side of the conflict Kid was on (not a fault, it’s one of the film’s better instances of show don’t tell). The action sequences are well-choreographed, and I was frequently either on the edge of my seat or – when it was bloodier – looking away.

   What I would say is that the film, overall, did feel pretty familiar. I didn’t like the ‘remember who you are’ section, purely because I feel like that’s something you see in every single revenge thriller of this ilk and it felt so cliched here particularly. Nevertheless, minor quibbles aside, if this is Patel’s first foray into filmmaking then I think his craft will only get more refined the more he tries.

–

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 27th April 2024: https://boxd.it/6dyand

Film Review 167 – Perfect Days

Watched: 22nd March 2024

Rating: 4/5 stars

–

   Perfect Days is more akin to slice-of-life than any kind of big, evolving drama, but it’s mesmerising. We wake up with Hirayama, watch him go about his business, feel the rhythms of his life and work as they ebb and flow away from and back to his normality. Of course there are disruptions, little forks in the river that take us away from the familiarity of the shore, but we never lose sight of it. Much of the film, when Hirayama does not have these disruptions, is spent in silence, but it’s the comfortable silence you have with a long-time friend, a silence that is not a symptom of a lack, but which in itself communicates something. I found myself wanting to watch Hirayama clean toilets forever, because he does it with such attention to detail and such genuine pride in his work. In a way, it reminded me somewhat of what I liked about The Taste of Things, another release I saw this year where much of the focus was on manual tasks – there is a pleasure to be found in a job well done, especially when you are watching someone else do it.

   What makes me vastly prefer Perfect Days, though, is the emotional weight anchoring it.  Kōji Yakusho is phenomenal as Hirayama. Like I’ve said, I could watch him work for days on end, but what I also appreciated was the subtleties of his performance, along with the subtleties of Wim Wenders’ script. There is a trail of breadcrumbs to follow through the urban jungle of Tokyo, and as the film progresses we realise that there is something in Hirayama’s past, a cloud that – like Travis in Paris, Texas – hangs over the sunshine of today. It’s never quite addressed, though enough hints are given that we can hazard a guess, but Wenders does not want us to linger in the past. We’re confronted with the here and now, the healing power of relationships, music, rediscovering your inner child and the little joys of life. Perfect Days is a beautiful work of art that takes life slowly, but takes it seriously at the same time.

–

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 11th April 2024: https://boxd.it/66TImx

Fil Review 166 – Drive-Away Dolls

Watched: 20th March 2024

Rating: 3/5 stars

–

   Started off strong, but like a car speeding off into the distance, it left its better qualities in its wake. Surprisingly I actually quite enjoyed Margaret Qualley’s accent, and thought she and Geraldine Viswanathan balanced each other out pretty nicely – but the decision to have them get together just felt very contrived. I didn’t really see much romantic chemistry between them, so not sure why they went down that route. There were a fair few funny moments in the film, some of them a bit too ludicrous to land, but I found my patience wearing thinner by the end – and when it’s barely over 80 minutes long, I don’t think that’s the best result you want. Just a lot of promise that I don’t feel quite delivered.

–

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 11th April 2024: https://boxd.it/667PfH

Film Review 165 – Anatomy of a Fall

Watched: 14th March 2024

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

–

   Did Sandra do it? Did she do it? Who knows! Who even cares (that much) when the mystery of trying to figure it out is so compelling? Anatomy of a Fall leaves just enough breadcrumbs to follow along, but still, does it lead you the destination that is factually true, or just your favoured interpretation? We are given just enough of the outline to feel confident in colouring in its interior, but even still, there’s always the nagging suspicion that something has been missed, that something has been misunderstood. Sandra Hüller, in her third performance of the year for me, is the outstanding central piece of this puzzle – there is an unflappable sense of calm to her, and yet you’re never quite sure if it’s really who she is or if she is just a consummate actress. The scrutiny placed on her is unbearable – the court scenes alone, while compelling viewing, are equally as stressful, and watching her navigating this minefield, trying desperately to not fall into its pitfalls, is riveting. The supporting cast are fantastic as well, and a special shout-out must go to Antoine Reinartz as the prosecutor (so slay that you can’t help but appreciate him even if he is going after Sandra with the appetite of a hellhound). This was absolutely one of the best watches of the year so far that had every cog in my head turning frantically trying to figure things out, and I loved every second of it.

–

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 11th April 2024: https://boxd.it/63iseh

Film Review 162 – Dune: Part Two

Watched: 8th March 2024

Rating: 5/5 stars

–

   The spectacle of watching this in IMAX format was frankly incomparable. I watched the first one in a normal cinema when it came out, and still found myself blown away by the effects and sounds – but last night took the biscuit. Dune 2 is nearly three hours’ worth of unrelenting spectacle, a tour-de-force that ducks and weaves, charges and feints, pushes through everything in its path without ever losing a single second of its own momentum. I hate sand as well, but it’s never looked so good on the silver screen, those wide shots of desolate dunes (see what I did there) haunting in their beauty beneath the pre-dawn sky, or else the blistering open desert at high noon, where earth and sky seem to melt into one. And then you contrast this with Giedi Prime, the unsettling glamour of its fighting pits, everything in a monochromatic, otherworldly glow that only highlights the inhumanity of its inhabitants, their almost-human faces and expressions. Dune 2 is a feast for not just the eyes, but all the senses.

   What of its story though? A problem I found with the initial Dune, that it sacrificed some of its heart in order to build its world (a necessary evil, to be sure), is all but gone in its sequel. Timothée Chalamet’s descent from hero to anti-hero, as Paul Atreides begins to resign himself to the destiny he has long tried to resist, is sobering to watch, but what is equally as gripping is the effect it has on his relationship with Chani – and how Zendaya captures the character’s natural sharpness and softness, the love she has for Paul tempered with the fear she has of him becoming someone unrecognisable. Meanwhile you have Rebecca Ferguson giving another scintillating turn as Lady Jessica, all notions of Bene Gesserit planning and plotting cranked up to 100 as she endeavours to make a messiah of her son. Dune is a space opera whose story rests not on grand, intrinsic moral notions of good versus evil, but instead on the dynamics of power, family, prophecy and truth. Is Paul really the long-awaited saviour? Does that even matter, when so many around him – and he himself – believe it? This is a parable against the dangers of extremism, of religious fervour and how imperialism do nothing except to decimate cultures with centuries of history. Watching Zendaya standing alone – quite literally – against this oncoming storm is almost sad, though I can’t wait to see how it turns out in Dune Messiah.

   Likewise, now that the story is fully on its way, the closing chapter of this trilogy has a lot to live up to. Florence Pugh hints at moments of Irulan’s iron will, but I’m still waiting to see her blade fully brandished. Likewise, if I could ask for something of this film, it would have been slightly more of the imperial court, slightly more of the Bene Gesserit. When you’re adapting something so dense, changes are necessary though, and Denis Villeneuve shows that his hands are more than capable at holding this delicate balance.

–

Originally posted on Letterboxd on 21st March 2024: https://boxd.it/60pvWj