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One Day (2024)
7.5 if I'm allowed a half rating!
I've had my heart broken by both the book and the film so there were no surprises to be had but I still thoroughly enjoyed the watch. I thought Leo Woodall was perfectly cast as Dex and his acting was impeccable, there wasn't a single moment I didn't believe he WAS Dexter Mayhew. He carries a lot of the emotional scenes too, as I suppose part of Emma's character is the awkwardness and emotional distance.
I strongly disagree with other reviewers saying the romance is too unlikely because of Ambika Mod's lack of conventional attractiveness... she's very pretty and they make perfect sense as a pairing for the story. I also thought Mod's acting was good and I was fairly convinced she was Emma, although sometimes her lines and inability to be quiet in tender moments were so cringe it did take you out of it a bit. Perhaps that one is on the writers though. The issue I suppose was a slight lack of chemistry between the leads, but it wasn't fatal by any means. They were respectively convincing of being in love with and longing for the other, but didn't quite nail the chemistry when they were actually together. There was an ease and comfort between them but not quite passion.
It was probably slightly too long at 14 episodes even though they were short. I know it's very much part of the original story but there's only so many times you can see two people who really have no reason not to tell each other how they really feel, fail to do just that. Anyway, fully enjoyable watch even if you've read / seen it before, and I cried my eyes out at the end - mainly due to Woodall's ability to CRY with conviction. I hope we'll see him in more now!
Alice & Jack (2023)
and he loves her because...?
Just to note I didn't finish this series - I gave up after episode 3. It's really trying to approximate something like normal people or one day (the book/ film, I know nothing of the Netflix series yet), but fails to deliver any scenes showing WHY these two love each other. Without this, it's impossible for the audience to become invested in their relationship and the whole thing becomes even more drawn out, painful, pointless and nasty. The Aisling Bea scenes were my favourite. She and Jack actually had a bit of rapport.
It's not just that Alice is rude, self involved and not in any way likeable - I know people fall for people like that - but we actually don't see any moments at all of Alice and Jack really talking or enjoying each other's company. She seems tender about him while kicking him out of their one night stand, and that's about the size of it. The rest of the time she's either yelling at him or someone nearby, berating him about his career and life choices, or making him a part of her childhood trauma. Such a slow-paced show about yearning, enduring love and bad timing really needed to make us want to see these people end up together, but instead I kept rooting for Jack to go back to Aisling. I would give anything Domnhall Gleeson does a go though so if you like him maybe it's worth trying to endure.
Fargo: Bisquik (2024)
Everybody acting fools
Unlike others in the review section I have really enjoyed this season, finding it tense and thought provoking at times. I could probably have done without the camp utopia episode but I get the punch it delivers when we see Dot look out from her prison to the Tillman tower aka Linda grave site. Episode 9 had me on the edge of my seat even though the start of some foolish behaviour crept in ... eg Dot leaving her gun up top when she climbed into the pit, even though she apparently has some sort of incomprehensible SAS / home-alone-style ninja training.
The start of this episode felt insulting with all the tomfoolery. Does no one know about shooting people in the leg ?! Dot hits Roy in the stomach and that's fine, I get wanting to have your stand off rather than going for a kill shot, but immobilise him with a swift one in the foot too surely? And don't get me started on Witt. He follows Roy without backup to avenge Dot, okay I suppose, but then ends up taking a fatal stab wound to the heart in a one on one stand off with a severely wounded guy while he's got his gun on him? Help ! I'm sure every viewer was collectively screaming at the tv for Witt to shoot him, and not in a fun this-is-such-thrilling-television way either. Again, maybe Witt didn't want to kill Roy without bringing him to justice, but how hard was it to pop one in Roy's kneecap or better yet, shoot the hand holding the knife? Add into all of this that Witt is a gun trained police deputy and we're past the point of suspending disbelief.
Overall I wasn't thrilled with how the plot wrapped up here either. Maybe I'm being very pedestrian but I could have done with a Dot / Roy face off. In the previous episode Roy commands one of his men to finally dispense of Dot saying 'the closest I've ever come to feeling something, I felt for her', and this could have opened up some room for much needed character depth from Roy in a final showdown instead of him continuously being portrayed as a Big Nasty Cartoon Baddie. The lengths he goes to in his cat and mouse hunt for Dot warranted a closer look at Roy's character and motives I think. Maybe the Dot / Roy showdown could have culminated in Witt's silly little death and I would have forgiven it more, but as it stands it felt like Witt died for nothing in particular. If he'd escorted Dot back to the FBI and let Roy escape & Gator give him up, the outcome would have been the exact same except Witt would be at home with his cat after, yanno?
Speaking of Gator, he was certainly one of the more interesting and complex characters this season and I think Joe Keery did a good job. I was so worried for him in episode 9 even though he was such a grade A prick the whole time. I kinda figured out the writers would have Gator be Roy's demise and we'd see a tender moment between Gator and Dot, but this could have been executed in a more exciting way. Sure, we could hardly have Gator physically destroy Roy given his incapacitation but I think they moved on from the ambush a bit too swiftly and didn't give it the momentum it deserved. I think I wanted more from our last moments with Gator to be on how he still likes oatmeal cookies as well. Just seemed a bit twee.
Finally, on the subject of twee, the second half of this finale was just that for me. There were interesting philosophical points made for sure, lots of symbolism and Christian analogy, but ultimately it came off as pretty saccharine without much tension for me. Everything Dot said while sat on her couch and at her dinner table was clearly supposed to be very powerful but it was delivered with such a Sesame Street tone and on the nose vernacular that I found it quite hard not to cringe. There was no part of me that felt she could still be in danger from Munch so it lacked any tension and just felt like a gentle parenting session. Munch was an interesting character overall and I wouldn't have liked the season so much without him, but he deserved a better setting for his final soliloquy and redemption.
Last last thing, I loved Jennifer Jason Leigh this season. She was a perfect anti-hero: cold, camp, cut throat (in the way billionaires cut throats, you know). She showed her love through practicality not sentimentality and that was a welcome antidote to other didactic elements of the season.
Saltburn (2023)
Very watchable... but ultimately doesn't work
Like Promising Young Woman (an erroneous Oscar winner) Saltburn reads like the first draft of a screenplay with unclear intentions. The plot and its meaning are muddy and lack both conviction and wisdom. The way I see it, there are 3 different ways to try to make sense of the themes and events that unfold:
This is simply a thriller about a vampire. A cuckoo begins laying his eggs in a nest that doesn't belong to him, destroying its inhabitants and taking the nest for himself. There's no underpinning commentary about society, class structure and class struggles. You can enjoy the film at face value. There are certainly vampiric motifs utilised in places: notably the red gothic font used for 'Saltburn' in the opening credits and posters, and of course the infamous period sex scene. Felix dressed in angel wings and Oliver in antlers i.e. Horns at the costume party is a fairly obvious depiction of good vs evil as well.
This is supposed to be an eat the rich commentary about an inherently flawed class system and those who fall victim to it; how wealth corrupts not only those who have it, but also those who are shut out of it. On an eat the rich interpretation I suppose we are to somehow align with Oliver, a character who is ostensibly overthrowing and reclaiming generational wealth and status from a group of people who didn't deserve it in the first place. Oliver should be vindicated for toppling this dynasty and destroying the Cattons, question mark?
Why does this objective fail to work? Primarily because a huge plot point and quote unquote twist is that Oliver turns out not to be working class or particularly disadvantaged but a middle class boy with doting parents. This shatters any characterisation of him as a foredoomed casualty of a structure that failed him. The film struggles to find its feet as a quasi-revenge flick after this revelation because any desire he has to destroy the family and take the throne has lost its charm.
Fennell has either intentionally or inadvertently created a cautionary tale to the very wealthy about mouths poised to bite the hand that feeds them. It's not a story about a person with nothing who seeks restitution from a family imbued with extreme privilege, but a story about a middle class boy who wanted what he didn't have. Perhaps who 'wanted what everyone wants', what money can't buy but wealth affords: status, charm, charisma, beauty, spectacle.
The Cattons aren't vicious, they're kind of just witless quarry. Yes, they're callous at times, out of touch, self-centred and hedonistic, but this is all played as fairly vapid or at worst a bit yucky. In real life, how do the rich stay rich? By shutting out those who aren't like them. Sure, Oliver is treated like a bit of a pathetic plaything, and Elspeth's good graces for Pamela run out, but crucially, they are allowed in.
Even more poignantly, Oliver is never really sufficiently downtrodden to be our anti-hero. He is calculating and depraved, acting upon an insatiable lust for the family, what they have, and what they represent. He's cold and he's manipulative, and actually we're not really shown what draws the family to him at all. Ultimately the Cattons are presented as vacuous victims, besieged by a vindictive sociopath who is given an inch and takes a mile.
I'm highly doubtful that this 'cautionary tale to the rich'' diagnosis reflects Fennell's intent, but I do think it's the direction the film naturally sends itself in, and I think it's the most uncomfortably compelling way to watch. 'Eat the rich' is nothing new, but an outright omen to society's elite (from someone who does essentially belong to that class) is kind of disgustingly fresh. It seems to say 'there are 2 types of people in this world: those who have it, and those who want it', and doubles down on how those who want it will go to great and unthinkable lengths to acquire it. Unfortunately, my gut feeling is that she resolved to write an eat the rich fable, which was ill-fated in her hands I'm afraid, and wound up with something either incoherent or accidentally flipped on its head.
Finally, there is of course the possibility that this is literally supposed to be a rip off of Ripley, a story about a boy who became so infatuated by the high life and the people in it that he'd do whatever he could to hold onto it. Felix does only seem to be killed because he found out Oliver's secret. So, was the original plan only to infiltrate and not to conquer? And then it goes wrong? Except Oliver fails to mention this in his intelligence-insulting final 'here's how I done it' soliloquy. The Ripley rip off was shattered for me from the moment Oliver sent back his eggs.
The Bear: The Bear (2023)
Claire's character was a stain on an otherwise great season
Despite a few plot holes and some questionable writing at times, this season was thoroughly enjoyable. I gather that 'Fishes' was something of a marmite episode but I for one enjoyed watching the unbridled chaos that made me love this show so much in season one. The way Claire's character is written and acted, however, has let the season down somewhat. I found myself physically cringing at most of her scenes, and by proxy I found myself wholly uninterested in the most complex and interesting character from season one: Carmy.
I hate to make a Gen Z reference but Claire was too reminiscent of the 'insufferable female lead who's convinced you're absolutely obsessed with her' skit from TikTok. The way she would say everything as if it was the most romantic and important thing in the world, constantly giving drawn-out doe eyes to Carmy and saying everything with an unbelievable amount of dramatic pauses (I nearly turned the tv off listening to her voicemail at the end of this episode) just came off as cheesy and cliche and didn't fit with the show or with Carmy's character at all. I felt like I was watching Emily in Paris whenever she spoke. If the writers were to insist on giving Carmen a love interest this early on, I think they could have done a better job at conceptualising who that person should be. An old flame from childhood is fine, but give the girl something about her! Maybe Carmy's resistance to the relationship had less to do with his inability to let himself feel joy and more to do with how nauseating their exchanges were. As in any film or tv show, I think you must show the audience why two people love each other in order to make that romance convincing.
Aside from that, we got to see so much character development from the secondary players this season, and seeing Richie's journey culminate in him saving the day this episode was really joyous. That being said, perhaps my favourite scene this ep was Carmen and Richie having a slinging match through the walk-in door towards the end - well shot and good old fashioned complex familial venom coming from both men. Reminded me of uncut gems which can't be a bad thing.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
Actually a 7.6 - a lesson in not letting reviews put you off
I put off watching this because so many reviews called it a sinful waste of 2 hours, but I'm so glad I went with my instinct instead...
Sure it's not a sensational movie in the traditional sense but I think it's well paced, well acted and well told. The narrative of the 'unnatural mother' is not one we see much in cinema and it felt like refreshing viewing fodder.
Olivia Coleman was stunning as always, and Dakota Johnson does a great job too. There are parts, certainly at the beginning of the movie, that feel honestly disturbing. By the end you realise that this discomfort comes from trying to figure out who is the hero and who is the villain in a movie where there are only complicated people. Like in life!!! Great stuff.
Clickbait (2021)
Good for first 6 episodes then weird
Last two episodes completely undid all good work from the first 6. Suspending disbelief wouldn't have covered it.
Jagten (2012)
Pretty good, sometimes slow, very frustrating
I thought overall that this film was pretty good - obviously the synopsis tells you almost everything that happens but that's to be expected with an arthouse movie.
Mikkelson's acting was outstanding, and I thought the girl Klara did a good job too. The acting overall was definitely a highlight. The scenery and the shots of this small rural town were also compelling and conveyed the feeling of the movie perfectly.
The adherence to linear storytelling sort of makes sense for a movie that's not gonna dig around into the plot in depth, but it made the pace a tad slow at times. Having said that there were some shocking scenes that had me gagged.
I'm sure that frustration is an emotion intended to be imparted by writer and director, but I found it a bit hard to believe that Lucas didn't explain the situation with Klara kissing him and giving him the heart. Of course he might have been condemned for lying or trying to blame the child, but I think certainly in the early stages of the accusation an explanation of a rebuffed childhood crush might have at least provided the nursery owner with a motive for poor little Klara to lie.
Anyway, a 7 on first viewing but not one I'd likely watch again