Letterboxd — Your life in film

Really enjoyed it! It was surprisingly funny and had a cool message. Kinda reminded me of Elf. You guys are gonna love it.

Buckle up.

There is clearly a lot of care put into the presentation of the film (with some creative choices that may seem pointless and others that are cinematically brilliant), and Ana de Armas gives a strong performance, but while Blonde may offer a harrowing look at the mistreatment and abuse of a tragic figure by a callous, patriarchal society, the disjointed structure and one-note, surface-level examination of Marilyn Monroe leaves more to be desired from a narrative standpoint.

A flawed and overlong but poignant and artful sequel to Black Panther which deserves credit for its sympathetic villain that, like the previous film’s, blurs the line between good and evil and for honoring Chadwick Boseman while gracefully and adequately adapting to his untimely demise.

The atmosphere is beautifully done, like in all of Guadagnino’s films, and the fusion of cross-country romance, coming-of-age drama, and horror is ambitious to say the least, but the slow, meandering plot and my inability to find an emotional anchor in any of the characters made it hard to sink my teeth into the story, even though it was never dully with Sully (Mark Rylance’s character).

Relying on a deliciously absurd and satirical sense of humor and—though not always subtly—revealing the hypocrisy, stupidity, and utter filth of human relations, Ruben Östlund takes his audience on an unusual, uproarious, and all around wild ride that makes great use of a fittingly triangular narrative structure in which each act becomes something new and intriguing, especially in a 15-minute sequence of hysterically over-the-top sea sickness.

Glass Onion may not be as funny, tight, fresh, and narratively satisfying as its predecessor, but Rian Johnson’s deftness is still fully intact, and we have a new set of faces and a dramatically different setting to bask in this time with another mystery that’s even more convoluted than before but holds our attention all the way through and unfolds in fun and unexpected ways.