Carter_Darkly Reviews

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)

Entertaining even when it falls over a cliff

[6/10 · 29 November 2020]

Melanie Lynskey is perfectly cast as Ruth, a young woman who 'doesn't feel at home in this world anymore'. Ruth starts out navigating through some awkward moments in an amusing way. She has a fear of death and the nothingness it leaves us with. But when her house is burgled and the police won't help, she focuses on the selfishness and unlpleasantness of others. She turns vigilante and becomes determined not only to retrieve her stolen items but to give the thieves a jolly good lecture on how decent people should behave.

At first, this appears to be an intelligent, thoughtful movie, told at a gentle, engaging pace but at some point (not sure when) this approach is abandoned and the film is pretty much driven by little more than violence, shooting and chasing, like a poor Tarantino movie (or maybe a poor Coen Brothers film). The ending is not completely satisfying either because the film touches on many themes but doesn't really tie them together. The writer had some great ideas but is not really sure how to develop them. I was left wondering what the point of the movie was. Not for the first time have I thought this about Netflix movies, a point doesn't seem important to them.

Having said that, the movie does have a lot going for it and is therefore worth watching. There are some interesting characters and the acting is great throughout. It's also nice to see a movie that is not too long and does not overstay its welcome. Most importantly, the movie is consistently entertaining. Maybe that's the whole point of it, in which case it succeeds.

Make Up (2019)

Great atmosphere, nicely shot and performed, flawed story

[6/10 · 7 November 2020]

An 18 year old girl arrives at an out-of-season caravan park by the sea to stay with her boyfriend who works there. She quickly suspects he is involved with another girl and becomes somewhat paranoid. The setting is perfect for the mood and atmosphere the director wants to convey; bleak, lonely, downbeat, and often downright creepy and unsettling. The movie has a very slow pace which in my view works very well, but it will alienate some.

The story has a serious flaw however in that we never really get to know the main character before her certainties begin to unravel and so are not really invested in her plight as we should be. The movie is far more comfortable when tackling her burgeoning friendship with a female character from the campsite than it is when we are asked to believe in her relationship with her boyfriend, which is glossed over and shallow and never really convincing. I like how the director was married to visual storytelling but we needed some kind of conversation between the main character and her boyfriend to believe something was at stake. The ending also falls a little flat, if it can be called an ending. It feels more like we are being told this mysterious, ethereal film was really just a lot of fuss about nothing.

My rating is generous because I like this style of film-making and would definitely watch more by this director, but if she wants to use male characters they should be more than just props and plot conveniences. 6/10

The Murders at White House Farm (2020)

Powerful re-telling of a tragic tale

[8/10 · 15 February 2020]

Ignore some of the ridiculous, low-star reviews of this drama, they are written by Jeremy Bamber's "fans" and have nothing to do with the quality of the drama itself.

This is a powerful re-telling of the White House Farm murders in 1985, focusing mainly on the aftermath rather than the build up or the event. It is a slow-moving drama, but this is to its benefit in my opinion because it adds to the realism, and creates an atmosphere which is occasionally quite sinister.

Probably the opening episode is the weakest, but when Mark Addy appears as DS Stan Jones the story real takes off. Mark's naturalistic acting really hooks the viewer. Stephen Graham is a little wasted in a one-note part, playing the annoying DI Taff Jones who shouts and obstructs at crucial moments.

Apart from Mark Addy, other stand-outs are Alexa Davies who is consistently convincing as Jeremy Bamber's suffering girlfriend, Mark Stanley, who gives a powerfully sensitive performance as Jeremy's brother-in-law (just seeing him on screen is upsetting, and his final visit to Sheila's flat is heartbreaking) and, of course, Freddie Fox as the strange but charismatic Bamber. You can't keep your eyes of Fox, there is something magnetic about him here.

I have been perhaps generous with my rating as I find the case itself interesting, but I do think everyone involved has done a good job here. Despite the slow pace, 6 episodes is exactly right.

The ending is so sad, very hard to watch

Bodyguard (2018)

A few gripping scenes try to mask an improbable, long-winded drama

[5/10 · 3 October 2018]

This series started promisingly with the always interesting Keeley Hawes convincing as Julia Montague, a rather patronising Conservative Home Secretary. who is pushing a controversial new counter-terrorism bill through parliament.

Richard Madden as her Bodyguard Budd does ok considering he has to contend with a character who in turns is conscientious, lucid, smart, naive, stupid and downright creepy. His more negative character traits are superficially dismissed as 'problems', originating from trauma suffered in active service

In the latter episodes, one can forgive much of the cast when they struggle to convince, because their main function is simply to pass on information to the audience and explain what is going on. Episode 5 was particularly frustrating in this regard, giving the viewer a headache with an hour of almost endless exposition. Nor is there anything inventive or humorous in the dialogue or the performances, making it something of a trial to sit through. However the script cannot be blamed for Nina Toussaint-White's terrible miscasting as someone we are supposed to believe was an experienced detective. The director should have demanded more from her than a constant, pained expression. She brings nothing else to the role at all.

How different to the promising first episode, where silences, measured pauses and slow build-ups created a tension-filled atmosphere with ease. The show started to slip when Montague and Budd's relationship took a ludicrously unbelievable turn, and one which was quite unnecessary for the overall story. It would have been so much more powerful to leave their relationship professional with nothing more than hints at an ever-growing friendship and mutual respect, but no, the writers couldn't resist going over the edge and it was all downhill from there.

The setting is unrecognisable as modern-day London with snipers, political assassinations and attacks on schools; it feels more like a war zone, but the dull and cliched news reports - which were put there presumably to give the series some authenticity, actually have the reverse effect, treating these catastrophic events like business-as-usual.

The final episode was the most ridiculous, which managed both to be highly far-fetched and nonsensical.

Although there were 3 or 4 scenes in this series that were amongst the most gripping I have seen on TV, they cannot make up for the amount of time where little is happening beyond tired descriptions of an increasingly implausible plot.

Keeping Faith (2017–2021)

Don't waste your time

[2/10 · 29 July 2018]

Not in a million years could I believe that the main character is a successful lawyer with three children. She seems more like a stereotyped teenage girl's fantasy; handsome husband and family, great house, great job, gets drunk and acts the fool, dumps the kids whenever work calls. Nothing in the writing or the performance of the miscast actress suggests anyone involved understands what a person has to go through to run a business and a family successfully - no wonder they cannot put a convincing, realistic character on screen. And to make matters worse, the opening episode is peppered with and propped up by every cliché you can think of. Aside from beautiful views of the Welsh countryside, this series has nothing to offer but lessons in amateurism. Don't bother with it.