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Reviews
1899 (2022)
Alright, could have been great.
I've never seen Dark so I have no comparison to that.
With that out of the way, 1899 starts off compelling. The mix of nationalities on a ship looking for a new life has some appeal, it's a fun powderkeg of tension between class and culture. It could have done more with that. I found myself invested in most of the characters only for many of their plots to end in dismissive manners. Also it's never clear how many languages most of them understand, the language barrier seems to be there when the plot calls for it.
The show is a lot of style over substance. It throws iconography that is totally unrelated to the final reveal, I'm not sure if it's a deliberate red herring or unintentional but I found it very hard to see anything that really alludes to the final surprise. Many of the mantras echoed by shady individuals throughout the show try to make the conclusion sound more cerebral than it actually is. Some things make sense in retrospect but otherwise it feels like they are over-explaining a very simple concept.
It feels like this show wanted to be two different things and didn't really succeed in either. It could have been a very nice collection story lines happening on a confined melting pot, or something that allows the viewer to really chew on what the characters are part of. The big reveal at the end was kind of fun and I wish it had been any sort of hint but the show adheres too hard to a style around triangles. With how many loose ends I feel like they were trying to secure a second season as per netflix fever, but left the twist open enough to interpretation in case that fell through.
It's not a bad watch, but don't expect too much. The cinematography and acting is all great. The set design is what kept me watching, but honestly any of that can be bought with a good enough budget, I mostly care about witing.
Skinamarink (2022)
Scariest F'ng thing I've ever watched.
I'll start this with I'm not usually a horror fan, the medium is usually saturated with cheap jump scares and action movies dressed up with a scary antagonist.
Skinamarink is the most primal fear I've ever experienced on screen. It's odd angles and poor resolution create a dream-like sensation while avoiding faces and full characters in frame deprive you of comfort or connection. It's slow pace brings a feeling of imprisonment to what is playing out in the house.
This film feeds off the unknown, taking you back to a time where you couldn't explain the noises in the ceiling or what might be lurking in the dark corners of a room. It's a masterpiece of visual story telling, each hovering shot or anomalous event is carefully placed to explain what very little the movie offers for a story. The rules this entity has established. It digs into the oldest programming of your mind, the code that allowed you to learn as a child, and uses it to write a new language it speaks with.
I dare not sat too much, but the negative reviews here seem to be influenced by being surrounded in a theater. This move preys on the feelings of isolation, I watched it on a leaked source and it hit hard, real hard. Just discussing it again with my friends and writing this review chills my spine, reliving the small details that make it the terror it is.
The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021)
Perfect example of what modern animation can be.
Spiderverse already shattered the standards for animated films, this one takes it to the next level. For too long animated films for kids/families bordered on basic styles that were easy to crank out for what was perceived as a simple audience, but The Mitches Vs The Machines has pride in itself unlike any movie I've seen. Mixed mediums, a 3D movie blocked like traditional 2D animation, and COLORS, oh my god, the colors. The action definitely holds up to their previous work on Spiderverse, and the stylized look lends amazingly well to it as well.
The story itself is a little predicable, but that's to be expected with a movie aimed at kids/families, but just because it follows a familiar trend with the plot doesn't mean it's completely void of soul or surprises. They manage to take the traditional formula and update it, give it a more natural flow that feels right. Some of my favorite parts about the movie though is it has every opportunity to become some boomer anti-screen rhetoric about how tech makes us less connected these days, but steers clear of that narrative in favor of a much more wholesome and positive one. Also not to get too preachy, but it does a nice job of representation, Katie is very easily LGBT and in a way that feels organically hinted at, even the most veiled homophobe can't complain about it being "forced on our youth"
I've been following this movie for months, and I can't tell you enough how much it was worth the wait.