This review contains various thematic spoilers but only vague allusions to plot spoilers. Read at your discretion.
A Brighter Summer Day is a truth epic, a four hour journey into the abyss of teenage disillusionment. It's about the reality of growing up and the consequences of an aimless life. It's a quiet movie, of people kissing in the dark, with conversations happening between people offscreen, of themes muted in favour of shapeless ideas. It's paced like life itself, with threads…
Werckmeister Harmonies is a film of constant symbolism and allegory. It is the greatest philosophical and political allegory since Sátántangó, another film by master auteur Béla Tarr. Werckmeister Harmonies is Tarr's most exciting film (although Sátántangó remains his best) because it's the most brimming with ideas. Adapting the novel The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai, Werckmeister Harmonies more than matches the quality of the masterful original text. The film is more implicit in some ways, taking the dense metaphorical nature of the novel but…
Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies is a masterpiece of tension derived from reality. It centres on domestic life, on ordinary living, and it's about the piercing of built-up pain that exists within a family. So many complicated secrets and emotions have accumulated over years, and the release of them constantly leads to tears in Secrets & Lies.
The film has been worked and over-acted and rehearsed until it becomes natural, creating a set of characters that you really believe in. They exist…
Fast X is a colossal failure. It's a nothing movie, just a bland franchise extension made with no style nor character. There isn't even a structure, stuff just happens for over two hours and then the movie abruptly ends. Each scene of Fast X consists of a generic establishing shot and lame music cue, then there's an action scene, then we jump to another subplot and location, and this just repeats. It never settles on anything, just flipping through plot…
Bad people are complicated. There is something dark at the centre of The Lost Daughter, a film which viciously tears apart the idealism we often have about motherhood. It is a film of mothers, but not one of love. Instead we see a rot, mothers who find children a burden. The Lost Daughter is an uncomfortable movie, with a constant unease and sense of dread. We wait to be given answers, for characters to be uncovered and exposed, and yet…
SPOILERS ahead, but I would recommend reading this review regardless.
This was my own personal hell. I was actually very excited to see Weathering with You. Makoto Shinkai is a mixed director at best but his work was certainly improving over the years. Two of the friends I most trust for anime recommendations told me this was great. I even almost went to the English premiere. Boy am I glad I didn't. I hated this film. I was fine for…
