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Mare of Easttown (2021)
Predictable, slow, full of cliches
I tried and tried to get into this, but it just didn't happen. By the end, I was waiting for it to finish. Kate Winslet is a great actress but I just couldn't warm to like her character nor the story writing in general. Angourie Rice & Cailee Spaeny were the most promising of everyone.
Humans (2015)
Wonderfully addictive!
I saw Humans advertised on TV a few days ago and assumed it was a new series, but it turns out that it was 6 episodes through the 2nd season of 8 episodes. I downloaded the entire first season and started watching... halfway through the first episode, I wasn't convinced - it was an interesting idea but it wasn't jumping out at me. However, the last series I gave up early on was Game of Thrones & I ended up giving that another go after Season 5.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, after 2-3 episodes I was hooked - I watched the whole of the first season in one sitting and I'm almost up- to-date on season 2. Every episode brings new twists, new characters, and new emotions (both for the viewer and the characters)! It's an incredibly clever show that asks difficult questions, such as "what makes humans actually human?", "how do you define 'life'?", "How do we prove consciousness?", and so on. If you like Near-Future Sci-Fi that's entirely believable, then I cannot recommend this enough!
Let Me In (2010)
Passable remake but too many changes from the original
As a standalone film, it's not actually that bad; however it is not a standalone film - it's a remake of a wonderful film. I appreciate that not everyone wants to watch a film in Swedish with English subtitles, but that doesn't mean there's a necessity to start playing around with the original storyline.
Why suddenly set it in America? Why do the characters have different names? Why do things happen in different locations than in the book / original film? Why the need to make it so American & so sensationalist?
The acting by the kids is pretty good, but the acting by the adults is pretty woeful, unfortunately. If you have never read the book, never seen the original, and have no intentions of doing either, then I'm sure you could class it as one of the best vampire films, but having done both, for me it is not a patch on either.
Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)
Great idea in theory, not so great in practice.
Girl escapes insane cult, attempts to get her life back to normal but keeps having flashbacks. Sounds reasonable in theory, but it just does not work in this film.
Firstly, Elizabeth Olson acts her part pretty well, but it's not the hardest role to play - it basically consists of two mini-roles: 1) a normal 20-something girl, 2) A complete nutjob. Also, John Hawkes as the cult leader was played very well too. Sadly, no-one else acts particularly well, but a lot of that is because their parts are even worse. Her sister's part is basically to keep saying "Are you okay?" and "Why are you acting so crazy?", whereas her sister's husband has an even smaller repertoire - basically to continue going on about how he doesn't trust her, doesn't particularly like her, & thinks she needs sectioning.
There are some truly ridiculous plot lines in this film. Firstly, she goes to great lengths to run away from the cult & hide in the forest to avoid the people chasing her, yet she decides to go to the local burger bar in the town just down the road. Firstly, where does she get the money, and secondly - when one of the guys from the cult finds her, why is he content to just leave her there? All very bizarre.
There are so many jumps back and forth that it's hard to work out any kind of timeline as to what's going on. I get that she doesn't know if she's remembering or imagining, and that's good, but some sort of hint at a timeline would have been helpful.
The film lacked any kind of sense that it was going anywhere after the first 15 minutes... she escapes and goes to live with her sister until her and her husband get bored when they take her to an asylum - except she appears to be being followed by the cult leader (or is this just her imagination?)... there's no ending, no progression, and just a feeling of being no wiser at the end of the film than at the beginning and there was no sense of caring for the characters. Was I sad that she'd joined the cult? No. Did I feel for her sister and her husband at having to put up with her? No. Was I scared for her when it seemed the cult leader may be chasing her? No.