Change Your Image
nabillaarsyafira
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Kingdom (2014)
An underrated piece of delight, a diamond in the rough
Found this gem after an extensive amount of browsing. The character dynamics and the solid acting as displayed in the trailers caught my attention. The story follows a famous MMA veteran named Alvey Kulina, now a gym owner and renowned trainer, who's trying to keep up the good fight as best he can both literally and figuratively. Supposedly, the central notion here is the recognition that for every fighter, struggle is perpetual.
One way or another, everyone in the show is a fighter. We're presented with a set of captivating individuals: Kulina himself, a charismatic alpha with apparent flaws; his obnoxious, high, messed up, yet noble oldest son; his quiet, mild-mannered, hard-working youngest son, also a closeted gay; his young, blunt, cool, cliché-defying girlfriend; and his old friend, a young and talented former world champ currently on parole after years in prison.
Since the characters are the very heartbeats of the show, the acting is the aspect that I'm most drawn to. The cast is on point, although the show's good directing deserves some of the credits, too. They're as rough and raw as people get. Their chemistry as an ensemble is unbelievable. Frank Grillo is awesome as ever in a role reminiscent of his own Frank Campana in Gavin O'Connor's Warrior. Jonathan Tucker steals every scene with his ruthless brilliance. Think Brad Pitt in 12 Monkeys. But the breakout performer here has to be Nick Jonas, all-grown-up Disney heartthrob, who acts the hell out of the multifaceted youngest son. Through consistent, subtle mannerisms and intonations, he successfully portrays a guarded distrust, a fragile hostility, a repressed nervousness behind his character's exterior of youthful innocence. Looking at his latest performances in his quickly expanding filmography, you'll know it's no beginner's luck.
Anyway, the show is very dedicated to the realities of the MMA world. The choreography is fine, the self-isolating music choices have proved to be rather empowering. Otherwise, I'm always in for a good drama.
Stranger Things (2016)
An impassioned, stylistic 80's memorabilia
What a truly enthralling decade the 80's was. I'm truthfully not that into the zeitgeist, but man, was it a paramount era to the history of pop culture. And lately it has been resurrected into much of a contemporary subculture. From Sing Street to the upcoming Ready Player One motion picture, from MGMT to The 1975, mom jeans, hipster glasses—'nostalgia', so say them all, even though for the younger generation, it's mostly an all new trend made out of quirkier, stranger things (pun intended). And none of them fulfills me with the same surge of childish glee The Duffer Brothers' brain child imposes upon me.
Stranger Things is a show that captivates my dissipating appetite for jaw- dropping fascinations and strange discoveries. It energizes me with zeals. It has me remember many mood-boosting things: John Hughes movies, Stand By Me (this one, very much), Star Wars ("Lando Calrissian!"), Star Trek (Ryder is Spock's abramsverse mom, c'mon), River Phoenix (Charlie Heaton, anyone?), ET, mutants and superheroes, familiar adorkable geekery and young love.
From my inadequate description, you'd think it's a rainbows-and-unicorns kinda thing. It's not. It's a fairly dark sci-fi/thriller. But it's also a lot of pleasant things. A coming-of-age story, a love story, sometimes and more than you know, a comic entertainment. I think it was created with so much passion and enthusiasm that we all get to pass that on.
From the flawless soundtrack to the Emmy-worthy production, direction, and performances, I'm all in. I've never seen an ensemble of more talented kids. Millie Bobby Brown gives me the Natalie Portman vibes, the whole package, down to her well-known intelligence. Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp; I'm so in love with these kids that I sound like a pedophile.
The Duffers have openly attributed their inspirations to their beloved 80's childhood. They paid homage to the likes of The Clash and Spielberg and Stephen King, and received one hell of endorsements in return. And I'm telling you, hop on and ride the hype. 9/10.
Running on Empty (1988)
A River Phoenix gem
I am honestly too riveted on River Phoenix to comment about anything else. He was like, the next generation James Dean. And a James Dean he was. I always think Phoenix, antemortem and postmortem both, resembles youth itself, a constant warzone between lethal solicitudes and all-conquering fierceness.
First of all, the guy was cool as hell. Effortlessly so. He couldn't have helped it, he was born pretty. That's kind of a package deal when you choose to put him on screen: his screen presence is so strong that everything else would be dissected, personified through his sophisticated outlook. He'd be the centerpiece, the eye of the hurricane. Then suddenly, it all escalates into an assessment of identity. And you can identify with that.
His signature specialties include the multifaceted ambiguity of his facial expressions and his innate magnetism. Had he not died I imagine he would've grown into a present day Leo di Caprio—if you know what I mean. An ever-evolving actor who keeps outstretching his limits despite, or perhaps even due to, his childhood acclaims.
The movie's got some Rebel Without a Cause vibe, although it goes to the opposite direction. It's well-acted, it has a clear vision about what kind of movie it wants to be, everything is executed in the right amount. And of course Phoenix is pitch perfect in it.
I really wish I could see every single thing he might've stored for us up his sleeve, but his death immortalized his youth, and I guess I can live with that.
7/10.
The Road (2009)
An interesting take on the critically acclaimed source material
The greyish ambiance and the atmosphere of despondency are really two fundamental factors to the film, but the first half's pace is so insufferably dragging that it makes watching it all the more exhaustive. Then it gets a lot better.
Obviously this isn't just some generic post-apocalyptic movie. I've read some interesting interpretations of the source material, Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer-winning novel, though I must beg to differ. People seem to think that 'the road' symbolizes the natural human drive of survival. I think it symbolizes the human age. It keeps going and going no matter what. You get older; the world wears you down. Sometimes it eats you up. Sometimes you find a sanctuary, sometimes you find a testimonial of your youth. The Man is a long hardened commonsense, skeptical and practical, only operating under a strict set of moral codes. The Boy is a beating conscience, pure, innocent, and hopeful. The mutual belief they share is to keep "carrying the fire", to always stay as "one of the good guys", both principles being representatives of existing ideals.
The ending scene, I suppose, shows that you're never that alone, as long as you keep pushing through with the fire. Good guys will look after you and preserve all the good you believe in.
The movie is overall minimalistic, I simply hoped they had spent more time emphasizing or foreshadowing the allegories. Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee have a really great on-screen connection and both are fantastic individually.
7/10.
Vozvrashchenie (2003)
Tricky, beautiful, haunting
It's got an enchantingly beautiful cinematography, it's unassuming, it's kafkaesque.
It's tricky to delve into the film past its face value, because that way, you might realize it's trying to tell you a whole different story. I, for one, took it more literally because I didn't think I could place the subtext appropriately. After digging up one in-depth analysis or two, that turned out to be a good call: the movie is apparently an allegory about Russia the motherland (wouldn't have guessed that in a lifetime!), folkloric identity, old vs new ideology and all. Bearing that concept in mind, the meaning of the movie expands consequentially. But supposing we're using my initial understanding, I thought it was about a journey of self-redifinition. The filmmakers said it themselves, it's a visual journal.
Every interaction feels so organic. They don't even bother to try and overdo it. Zero amount of bullshit sappy/cliché moments. The brothers go back and forth—sometimes simultaneously—between fiery bickering and having each other's back. The father is an unsympathetic enigma.
I like it. It's good. It can be too outlandish for my personal taste at times is all. Especially prior to knowing about its root analogy. 7/10.
P.S.: RIP Vladimir Garin, died at 16, shortly before the world premiere of this movie.