Tuesday, 30 June 2020

Hustlers (2019)

Strong performances, looks great, does some fun stuff with unreliable narrators and socioeconomic commentary. It effectively strikes a balance between rooting for and empathising with the protagonists while feeling conflicted at their actions. The story is a little thin and pretty tropey, and also a little anticlimactic on those terms. Taken as an intimate drama with a lot of bling on top rather than a crime epic, though, it works great.
Rating: Good

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)

Funny and sweet. It sometimes drifts away from camp into plain soapy drama which on the whole is executed less effectively, but overall the character dynamics work. I did feel that it was a little hard on teenagers who stay closeted to assuage their arsehole parents, but I'm a straight cis 40 year old so I might be off target there.

Rating: Good

Cell (2016)

I had hoped that this adaptation might turn a rather poor King novel into a fun low-budget romp with Cusack and Jackson bromancing their way through a zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately it stays rather too faithful to the source, falling into all the same traps - the phone gimmick quickly becomes irrelevant, the cause and changes of the phone-triggered zombification are unexplained and random (the film even adds a (iirc) new, equally unexplained plot point where Clay had visions of the raggedy-man previous to any of this, which is utterly unnecessary), and there's really not much in the way of story, characters, drama or conflict.
They did do one thing I had hoped for, which was change the ending, but instead of taking the opportunity to provide explanations and satisfying resolution, they instead shuffle two-thirds of the protagonists off-stage five minutes before the end then go for an unconvincing 'it's a happy ending! Psych, that's just what he's imagining now the villains have brainwashed him!' twist.
Rating: Awful

Sunday, 28 June 2020

Phantom Thread (2017)

Gave up 20 minutes before the end when I caught myself groaning in boredom. Dress designer is a prick, other people put up with it, the end, who gives a fuck?
Rating: Awful

Saturday, 27 June 2020

Meet the Robinsons (2007)

Irritatingly hyperactive. Overloads on wackiness to the point where it feels like a Friedberg Seltzer movie - dozens of zany characters, genre pastiches, screwball montages, constantly thrown at the viewer in place of story or characterisation. The decision to withhold a bunch of narrative information in service to a big reveal dump an hour in makes the first two thirds of the movie feel even more directionless.
Also, this is pretty damn ugly for a 2007 CG animated movie, and the animation and direction is as spastic as the rest of the film.
Rating: Bad

Thursday, 18 June 2020

The Addams Family (2019)

Uninventive. Never really gets past the 'say a phrase but swap a positive word for a negative one' humour, mostly remixes story beats from the two live-action movies, adheres to the original character designs but also to the exact same Pixar aesthetics as almost every CG movie for the past 20 years, nicks the pastel suburbia theme from Edward Scissorhands (but doesn't do anything new with it like, say, make everyone look very similar in a way that wouldn't be so practical in live-action but perfect for CG), gives Thing a watch with an eye on it rather than use animation skills to imbue him with emotions. Also, some truly terrible music choices.
Rating: Bad

The Witch (2015)

Some effectively creepy elements, but a very slow barely existent story, variations on the same cipher for characters and some glaring artifice (the period clothing that all clearly came straight off the costume hire racks, the stilted dialogue and performances).
Rating: Bad