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Reviews
Rosehaven (2016)
Beautiful
Rosehaven is one of those rare shows that just has a unique emotional feel to it. Its jokes are well written, well delivered and executed perfectly. The directing is stylish, subtle and stunning. More than anything, the show has a happy/sad feel to it that makes it so much richer than your average show. I love this show.
The Mandalorian (2019)
Watches Like Videogame
I read somewhere that The Mandalorian was originally going to be a video game but instead got converted into a TV series. I don't know if this is true, but it seems like the only way to make sense of the first two episodes of the series.
The Mandalorian looks great and full credit must go to the artists, set designers, cinematographers etc. These are frills that can elevate a show, but at the end of the day it's the story telling that matters most and The Mandalorian's first two episodes play like a series of side quests to pad run time with no real bearing to the central narrative.
The show opens well enough with a relatively generic bar scene brawl. We are shown that our protagonist is someone not to be messed with and who is happy dealing in the grey areas of morality. But soon we are exposed to what I feel was the greatest creative error of the show which is that our main character never removes his helmet. Whilst this may be part of Star Wars lore, it creates a comical situation where we continually cut to reaction shots where we just look at a close up of a helmet. It's hard to get emotionally invested in a character with no facial expression and to make matters worse, the character talks with no emotion if and when he talks. This would not be an issue for a side character or villain, but to have your protagonist utterly devoid of personality immediately drains audience interest in his trials and tribulations.
This results in not being able to establish meaningful relationships between characters. The first real dialogue in the show is with a blue alien who turns out to be our first bounty. Having been captured by our protagonist, he is then taken onto his spaceship and proceeds to talk ad nauseum in an attempt at an amusing dialogue that unfortunately, for me, fell flat. The Mandalorian is silent throughout this until Blue-boy is mercifully (for the audience) frozen. So not only do we get no facial expression to understand our protagonist but we also get no dialogue.
Later, in a side quest that neither furthers character, narrative or world/lore building, a random small orange alien teaches the Mandalorian to ride what appear two legged sperm monsters. We get a 5 minute montage of our protagonist falling off the monsters, presumably getting as frustrated as the audience (we cut to his expressionless helmet). At this point, the tangerine alien, who is helping our protagonist for reasons that are largely unexplained (something about invaders causing a disturbance - that is never seen on screen - to his planet), tells him with a swell of music that as a Mandalorian he should be able to master sperm monster riding. Then we cut to the Mandalorian's mask and take cues from the music as to what he's thinking. The outcome of all this, our protagonist rides the sperm monster to his destination and then he is at his destination. End of side quest.
This show has a great look to it and visually captures that 'used future' of the original Star Wars trilogy. But long arty shots of a helmeted man travelling from place to place (be it on sperm monster or not) does not make up for 2 episodes of next to no consequential narrative development or character exploration. Unfortunately what could have been quite a fun video game has not been adapted well enough to be a good TV show.
Get Out (2017)
Original, authentic, thought provoking and meticulous
I went to see this film knowing nothing about it, not even its genre. I was given some clues during the trailers before the movie. First I was forced to enter a room with a young girl looking out the window only to turn around and suddenly reveal to my shock and horror the she was a very loud CGI monster. Then I was made to watch some kids go into a dark scary room filled with water which was suddenly and very loudly a clown-doll's swimming pool... or something.
And so I discovered Get Out is a horror movie. Get Out, however, does not follow a formulaic build up of jump scares and rehashed imagery to create it's tension and tone. It does this through meshing flawless cinematography with brilliant acting, music, lighting and script. Furthermore, the movie has plenty of commentary on the modern and historical faces of racism which it explores masterfully whilst never insulting its audience by being too brash.
Every shot in this movie feels carefully crafted to create tension and unease. From the single uncut shot of the opening scene to the unnerving choice of extreme close ups during dialogue. So often the choice of shot subverts what you would expect for the scene. Characters being warmly greeted by family is shown in a long shot giving a sense of detachment and that feeling of being watched. You are also as acutely aware of what is not in frame during the film as you are of what is in frame and this only adds to the ever mounting suspense. Combine all this with an eerie soundtrack (if a little cliché) and you have a film that feels organically creepy and not manufactured.
Furthermore, the film has genuine moments of comedy, which is unsurprising given its director's background. But the occasional comedic shifts in the movies tone never felt clunky. Well rounded and well fleshed out characters meant that the humour felt like it came naturally to scenes.
To go with the meticulous directing is a strong script. The film reveals information at an appropriate rate, the pacing is never tedious or rushed and most importantly, character motivations never feel inauthentic. Importantly, there wasn't that "I'm going to stop escaping to go open that door where the eerie music is coming from. I hope that loud, jumpy, stabby thing that's been chasing me isn't there" scene that pulls you from the movie.
This film is as intelligent as it is gripping. It will disturb and entertain you whilst viewing it. It will provoke thought during and after. It will continue to grow on you long after watching. Jordan Peele has put together a wholly original film that feels fresh, authentic and most of all meticulously crafted. I thought hard about what rating to give it and ended up figuring if I don't give a film this unique and this well made a 10, then what's the point in having a score go up to 10. Do yourself and those interested in original and well made cinema a favour by supporting this film and seeing it on the big screen.
Doctor Strange (2016)
Another 'solid' movie from Marvel, but not the 'refreshing new take' many claim
Doctor Strange was presumably named as such because Doctor Familiar does not roll off the tongue. However, it may have been a more apt title in a franchise that has become the Toyota of movie franchises with reliability being their cornerstone. A lot has been made about the 'refreshing' nature of this movie, however, this isn't the first time an intelligent, quick witted hero has fought and quipped their way to saving the world in a Marvel movie. Don't get me wrong, this is a solid movie, as most Marvel movies are, however, it hits the same beats as all Marvel movies before it, has the same brand of characters, has yet another bland sound track and puts on yet another impressive, yet heavily CGI visual feast.
Firstly, this movie's plot is written from the exact template that barely has time to gather dust in the Marvel vault before it's whipped out to produce another hit. We have a villain with a clear motive, to bring earth into a 'dark dimension'. Why? Why not? We have a hero who is cocky, head strong and a genius who will prove to be exceptional whilst not missing an opportunity to get a laugh. At first, the hero is somewhat in it for himself, but later comes round to being a team player proving that all it takes to save the world is a good attitude and a good set of friends. Though super intelligence and almost god-like powers doesn't hurt. In the end our hero out-smarts, out-muscles and out-quips his enemies by mastering some relatively vaguely defined spells relating to time and time-looping and using it against a giant CGI monster.
The movie does a decent job of creating its universe and a passable job of explaining its laws. Just enough exposition is given that on first viewing one does not feel the plot is entirely based on a series of screen writer conveniences, however, the movie very much avoids getting too complicated in its explanations and the audience is expected to give a fair amount of leeway to the plot, the ending being an example of this. Perhaps my biggest gripe with this movie, as with almost all movies in the franchise to date, is that it does the bare minimum when exploring its own philosophies. Strange's mentor, The Chosen One (or a title to that effect), espouses, almost off-handedly, that death gives life meaning. Why? The bad guys want to engulf the world in some sort of eternal life in the 'dark dimension'. What that would mean is glossed over. Also, if the giant CGI monster of this dimension lives eternally, does his life have no meaning as a result? If so, why can he even be bothered to try and engulf more and more worlds into his dimension. For a movie to transcend the 'good', it really needs to have more than a physical battle between its heroes and villains. There needs to be a battle of ideology. This movie alludes to this battle in passing before hurrying on to the next jump cut fight on a green room treadmill. Lastly, whoever first jokingly penned the term "sling ring" must have found it hysterical when it made it into the final script!
My next big gripe is with the music of this movie. Tony Zhou, from Every Frame a Painting, did a fantastic video discussing the Marvel Symphonic Universe where he puts a challenge to a bunch of people to sing a single original composition from a Marvel movie. No-one could do it. And after watching Dr Strange I can say I would once again be unable to sing a single melody from its soundtrack. The movie plays it very safe with its music. When excitement is happening, generic exciting music is playing, when something sad happens, generic soft sad music is playing and so on so forth.
Finally, to the visual effects. And yes, these are unusual and one feels like this is where the movie's creators wanted to get people to write their reviews saying "this is a refreshing new take on the MCU". Unfortunately, whilst the CGI is spectacular, I can never quite get over the fact that these are just a bunch of actors running on a treadmill in a green room towards a CGI portal that they really should have just created 2m away rather than 100m and they would have escaped danger easily. The action sequences are frenetic and heavily edited with seemingly multiple cuts a second. Keeping track of where characters are in space and time is impossible, though, to be fair to this movie, that is kind of the effect they were going for. Some of the visuals could rightly be compared to inception and one would assume the visual effects designers took a lot of inspiration from that movie. Yet scenes of people fighting inside rotating hallways just felt more real in Nolan's movie, perhaps because the were filmed in a real rotating hallway. It's the subtle imperfections in the actor's movements through the hallways and the way the light falls on surfaces that just can't be matched by computer generated images. The human eye and brain can always tell the difference.
In conclusion, this movie is good. A solid 3 out of 5. It'll get you from A to B without missing a beat, 'oh what a feeling'. If you want a popcorn flick, it's as good as they get. However, the movie is once again played very very safe. If you were looking for the 'refreshing new look at the MCU' then you're going to walk away disappointed.