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KinoCynic
Reviews
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
"David! Many Saints! I liked it!"
Many Saints of Newark is a really enjoyable film, even though it's a bit messy and seems unfinished.
Where this film excels is the characters. We learn more about Tony, Junior, and Christopher through his father Dickie. Each character has their moment of excellence. Tony has a brilliant scene talking to Livia, played brilliantly by Michael Gandolfini and Vera Farmiga. Junior has a big moment that puts a storyline from the Sopranos in a new perspective. Dickie Moltisanti was a good choice to set the film around. He shows moments of altruistic benevolence and violent malevolence throughout, constantly conflicted by the two. Harold, a new character, is a pretty complex and bold character. The film shows race riots in Newark and how it leads him to black empowerment, yet shows him no sympathy, as he's still a murderous criminal no different from Dickie's crew. Chase and crew took a creative risk by portraying him this way, and it paid off well.
Everyone's giving it their all with the acting as well. Vera Farmiga is brilliant in every scene she's in. I liked Billy Magnussen as Paulie. He doesn't have much screen time, but he was how I imagined Paulie in his 20s.
What lets the film down is a pretty unfocused story, and scenes that really don't need to be there. Ray Liotta is great, but his character doesn't add anything to the film. There's a lot of recaps from the TV show, and as much as I like the character development, it adds to the show and not the film. Harold's storyline basically isn't finished, either. He has a small scene at the end that doesn't wrap anything up. It feels like the story was sacrificed for some scenes that were good, even brilliant, but ultimately don't add up to anything.
Many Saints of Newark is good, but disappointing considering how the show it's based on remains one of the best TV shows ever. The film has all the components to be equally brilliant, but ends up feeling a little misjudged. I saw this with two friends who'd never seen the Sopranos, and they both enjoyed it too.
Anyway, four dollars a pound.
The Sopranos: Walk Like a Man (2007)
Best episode yet
'University' was my favourite episode up until this one. What an amazing episode.
'Walk Like a Man' has everything that makes the Sopranos legendary. On top of that, it pushes the characters and what we expect from the show, which is especially surprising and welcome this late into the series.
AJ's transition into adulthood shows all the effects of his troubled childhood. As he begins to mature, his life is spun off course by Tony carelessly trying to turn him into himself. It feels like a natural conclusion to his disturbing talk with Livia in season 2, and his cries for help in season 3. Robert Iler's acting in this episode is magnificent.
Michael Imperioli is also excellent, as always. Christopher is up there with Ralph and Richie for most disturbed character in the show, yet I felt sympathy for him in this episode. The feeling of powerlessness against bullying from his 'family' (that goes way out of line, even for the usual conversations they have), and the feeling that he's fated to live his life of destruction are directed brilliantly.
The Sopranos wouldn't be the Sopranos without violent spectacle, and this episode certainly has it. Much like 'University', it's used to provoke us into thinking about how ordinary life comes so close to abhorrent acts of violence caused by the criminal lifestyle.
Can't wait to see how the series ends.
Shin seiki Evangelion Gekijô-ban: Air/Magokoro wo, kimi ni (1997)
Art
I'm not really a huge fan of anime, but Neon Genesis Evangelion resonated with me. I liked the tone of the series - it feels like humanity are trying their best to survive and prolong inevitable doom from the Second Impact apocalypse, monsters known as Angels, and the threatening Third Impact. The series also explores human psychology, with psychosexual themes, self esteem and relationships with ourselves and others.
End of Evangelion takes all those strengths and perfects them. Needless to say, it ends up being a fantastic film. Shinji's psychosexual behaviour is made sense of in the infamous opening scene. We see the best and worst of humanity against the backdrop of impending doom. The final sequence is spectacular. I can honestly say it created dread and anxiety in me. Few films have ever created emotions so strong in me.
Writing this review, I feel like there's not much I can say without spoiling the film. All I can say is watch the show and this film for the entertaining storyline, memorable characters and an artistic, emotional ending.
Oldeuboi (2003)
On the verge of greatness, this close
If there's any film I wish I could like, it would be Oldboy. The film has an oppressively unsympathetic tone throughout, its best strength of many. The opening 40 minutes remain some of the best I've seen in cinema. Perfectly paced and doesn't hold back on showing the hellish, uncaring and nihilistic attitude of our main character, Oh Dae Su.
The cinematography is evocative and grimy. The soundtrack is whimsical and creepy and works really well against all the violence and weirdness. Strong direction carries the opening by holding your attention and creating intrigue. Every actor is giving one hundred percent throughout.
So I'm deeply engaged by the time our 'hero' has been established and the story begins. Unfortunately, this is where my interest in the film slowly ends.
Oldboy is dragged down by its need for exposition. It tells a twisting narrative that seems too complex for its own good. It really slows the pace down to a near halt. The iconic hammer hallway fight scene is great in isolation, but lacks tension as it happens way too early, and starts and stops the pace of this film, going back to exposition straight after until the third act.
Without spoiling anything, the villain has a vendetta against Dae Su that involves an elaborate plan, relying on hypnotic suggestion. The (in)famous payoff is shocking - at the cost of creating massive logic and plot holes. Thinking about the villain's plan makes you realise it makes no sense and only happens because the film needs a story. It's a damn shame, because the twist is deeply unsettling. I feel it could have been developed differently, even if it covered up only some of the plot holes. Also, the villain's motivations are pretty weak. It's basically all his fault anyway, which makes it hard to feel understanding for him.
Oldboy is certainly interesting enough for me to write this long review, but I've seen it twice now, and both times I found myself disappointed by the end. It's a shame as it really has some amazing strengths, but it's let down by a confused story that's too focused on the twist to make sense and remain entertaining. A memorable film, but one I won't watch again unfortunately.
Hellboy (2019)
Still one of the worst films I've ever seen
Hellboy 2019 is insipidly bad. My no-longer friend, partly because of this film, said we should watch it at the cinema. When we saw the rightly deserved negative reviews, he said it'll be a 'so bad it's good' type of film. Nope.
What Hellboy is, is a film that is tonally deranged, unnecessarily gory and completely unlikable. The plot is generic and has to use dumb sweary humour and people being ripped apart to stay entertaining. This isn't the fun type of gore, just miserable and shocking for the sake of it. At the same time it's trying to tell a serious story but jeez, who the hell cares when the film doesn't care.
The film is also unacceptably technically flawed for a hollywood movie. Sound mixing is non-existent. One minute characters are talking quietly then BOOM HERE IS A LOUD ACTION SCENE ARE YOU STILL WATCHING LOOK HERE IS SOME GORE
You can't see the screen a lot of the time too. Probably for the best actually.
The absolute worst part of the film is the section with Baba Yaga. Hellboy feels marginalised for being a monster in a human world, so runs away to the monster world. Hellboy comes across Baba Yaga who hangs children from meat hooks and cooks and serves them to him. So the film poses the question 'Are monsters misunderstood? Is Hellboy right?' and answers it with infanticide. What writing.
Not fun at all and no redeemable qualities. Somehow boring and loud and obnoxious. No care given. Hell, even this review I wrote in a few minutes has more thought put into it.
Face/Off (1997)
Hey, what's wrong with being over the top?
Face Off is one of the greatest films ever made. Beneath its exaggerated characters and ridiculously unrealistic plot is a film that recreates classic Buddhist literature and builds bridges between eastern and western storytelling. The result is an intelligent, high-action film about duality, identity, morality, and how far one will go for vengeance, even if it means losing one's family, and oneself.
Or maybe it's a fun action movie, I don't know.
What makes Face Off so great is that John Woo treats the film with respect. The over the top style makes sense because John Woo directs with so much confidence, he makes you suspend your disbelief and become immersed in the story. Action never feels out of place next to the dramatic character moments.
Gunfights are really well paced and creative. The opening scene builds perfectly to an awesome plane crash, then carefully slows the action down to a shootout to build the story while remaining entertaining.
A truly fantastic film. Smart yet unpretentious, John Woo earns legendary status in cinema to me for this and Hard Boiled.
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Upon reflection, disingenuous and insensitive
I watched this last year when it came out and thought it was a mess, but ultimately just fine. As a Spike Lee movie, I expected a strong, blatant message and this film definitely has that.
The message however, is pretty insensitive.
The film opens with REAL footage of executions and war crimes committed in Vietnam. Dead children with bullet holes in their heads, point blank executions, which are completely at odds with the silly way the film emulates old war movies where American GIs mow down sneaky Vietnamese guerrilla fighters. The film has a bad sense of humour - there's a scene where a veteran gets his legs blown off and dies screaming, then fives minutes later the characters are quipping before a big shootout against mercenaries who probably wanted nothing to do with these people anyway, I don't remember. It feels exploitative to put those who actually suffered alongside Marvel-style silliness like this.
Politics in Spike Lee movies is inevitable. But the politics of this movie are dodgy at best and offensive at worst. Spike Lee uses the backdrop of the Vietnam war, where mostly underprivileged and uneducated teenagers and young men were forced to fight and developed PTSD, and the Vietnamese had their homes destroyed, children burned and mutated and killed horrifically, to push contemporary politics which are irrelevant in comparison. BlacKKKlansman has a great ending which ties the themes of the film to real life racial tensions in America, and encourages the audience to consider what's going on in American society.
Da 5 Bloods has an ending where the characters donate their treasure to the Black Lives Matter organisation. This poses no thoughts or ideas, but comes across as Spike Lee basically saying 'donate to this organisation'. It feels very disingenuous to use the backdrop of a complex and horrible war to campaign for an American organisation, regardless of your opinion on BLM.
In summary, please don't use real life atrocities to promote an organisation that has nothing to do with the Vietnam war.
Rick and Morty: The Vat of Acid Episode (2020)
Classic Rick and Morty ruined by season 4's laziness
Rick and Morty season 4 drops the show's reputation for intelligence and creativity for swear words, edgy cartoon gore, wholesome Reddit references and blatantly reusing ideas from other media, including its own episodes.
This would be a classic Rick and Morty episode if it wasn't for the algorithm-like way these episodes are made. Every episode feels like it's checking boxes now, and this episode it really shows. Rick goes from being a cynical genius who cares about his family and carries a lot of pain underneath his drunken nihilistic attitude, to a shallow Mary Sue who can do anything with ease and uses his invention in this episode solely to spite Morty for questioning him. The concept of Morty taking technology too far has already been done in the same season. And there's a unnecessarily gory death at the end because every Rick and Morty episode needs that now. I've become numb to the violence in this show now and it feels immature.
What would have been an excellent episode is let down massively through the indifference of the writing, like the creators are only making these episodes out of resentment for the show being so popular. Please watch seasons 1 and 2 of Rick and Morty and Futurama instead, even this episode literally admits the idea was already done there first.
The Sopranos: In Camelot (2004)
Surprised by this episode's notoriety
Sure, Fran Feldstein is a hard to watch character, but that feels intentional. She's a reminder of the pain and toxicity caused by Tony and his dad's life of excess and infidelity. The Sopranos uses flashbacks expertly, and this episode is no exception. Livia Soprano is made into a more complex character when Johnny and Tony lie to her face after her miscarriage. Even as a narcissist, Livia was still capable of being hurt. Perhaps it was moments like this that doomed her into being a cold and lonely old woman.
Phil Leotardo's relationship with Tony is also really interesting in a more spectacular way, with Phil treating Tony like a kid, and Tony pushing his car into a crash.
My only criticism is the JT storyline feels a little to similar to Davey Scatino from Season 2.
Other than that, awesome episode with a stylish and contemplative ending.