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Reviews
Poor Things (2023)
A female empowerment story written and directed by men (ugh!)
I loved the cinematography and set design. I loved Emma Stone's acting. Other than that the film is terrible.
The fact that Emma's character is empowered by becoming a prostitute because she's sexually liberal and curios and has no positive or negative feelings about it is just ridiculous.
Sex is not empowerment. For women sex is much more mental than physical. Men cannot understand that allowing someone inside of you creates a whole new level of vulnerability that is nearly impossible to describe. And that it also creates the possibility creating life makes it even more challenging. So that's not female empowerment, if at all, is making us more vulnerable and telling us we need to be comfortable with it.
And believe me, I'm far from a prude.
Men don't get it but a woman's true power lies in how much she can heal herself and others. We create life but we also protect it. Men's egos are easy to go to war. Testosterone makes them want to have sex and fight, it's all it does. Progesterone creates. It's two very different ways to experience the world.
True female empowerment comes from surviving and thriving. Healing is what women know how to do much better than men.
I know this is reductive but so is this story. It's a far cry from what it actually means to be a woman in a man's world and how we build up our power from that. And believe me it doesn't come from working in a brothel.
Babylon (2022)
Misunderstood masterpiece
This movie has so much going on for it that I'm not surprised many people didn't get it. That does not mean it's not a true masterpiece.
Chazelle's obsession with perfection comes across this film like none of his previous pictures and if you are a film buff and know about this particular era, you'll find yourself delighting in the amount of detail he goes into.
From the get-go you find references like the Fatty Arbuckle debacle and many other factual stories and urban legends that plagued the era. It's a pastiche of everything that happened during an incredibly small amount of time but that changed a whole art form forever.
Yes, the music is modernised but to me that was a brilliant way of showing modern audiences what their grandparents experienced in their own way. Honestly, no-one today is going to get excited with the ragtime hits of the past. And to be honest, this soundtrack is one of the best out there. It's complex, exciting and clearly communicates the energy and excess of those days.
Visually it's stunning. Every frame is perfect and every actor is at their best. Margot Robbie's emotional turmoil is beautifully expressed in the bathroom scene and Brad Pitt's suicide is almost romantic. However, for me, Jean Smart takes the prize when she discusses Pitt's career with him during a beautiful monologue that is perfectly delivered.
My only criticism would be the club that Tobey Maguire takes Diego Calva to. I mean, Tobey's character is already amazing, but that scene was hard to digest.
All in all, I think this film is misunderstood because this type of storytelling is nascent. Babylon to me is among the trailblazers opening the doors to meta-modernism in film making and I'm certain that further down the line it will be regarded as pure genius.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Disappointing
The case of the Osage murders is not only horrific it is nail-bitting. However, this rendition was anything but.
It was entirely too long, the pace is never-ending, the score is forgettable and the characters try to be complex but it ends up feeling like the creators didn't really understand who they were.
Did Ernest love Mollie and fight his conscious because he felt inclined to be loyal to his uncle? Did Mollie understand she was being slowly murdered and accept her faith or was she in the dark? It's not clear. I finished the film with more questions than answers.
Though Lilli Gladstone is undoubtedly the best part of the film it feels like the portrayal of Native Americans is still completely white-washed. In general the Osage Indians come across as this stoic two-dimensional creature that is being exterminated and instead of showing emotion, feelings of hurtfulness, discontent, vengeance, weariness to their white overloads... they just simply sit around a fire and discuss their problems while maintaining an emotionless expression on their face.
DiCaprio's eternal convoluted expression, which he has personified in every role after Titanic is no longer convincing to me. He didn't truly convince me he loved her or that he was loyal to King. He didn't even convince me he was confused or bullied by King to do his bidding. It just landed flat.
The cinematography, however, is breathtaking. The scenery is masterful and I loved every frame. But for a movie about a massacre endured by the Osage community I learned nothing about them. I didn't learn anything about their history, their traditions, how they would feel about inter-racial marriage or what that would imply within their community, how or why they endured the white man taking over their independence, nothing. No insight into them, the victims whatsoever.
I feel like it was a wasted opportunity to tell an amazing story about the true suffering of Native Americans.
Las niñas bien (2018)
Don't bother!
Absolutely dreadful! You can tell the cinematographer has no idea of Mexican high class society in those days and completely ignored the source material. Don't waste your time.