Change Your Image
allison-75
Reviews
Saltburn (2023)
Intriguing start veers off into gratuitous violence
Director spends the first two thirds of the movie developing the characters, establishing the narrative arc, and earning the audience's trust. Then sabotages it all with a rushed montage of gratuitous (and obvious) violence in service of being "wildly unpredictable" or "goth" or....something? The acting is well done, the sets and costumes are well done, even the dialogue is good. The problem is the story itself and the way that story is directed, both of which are due to one person, Emerald Fennel, who has otherwise been involved as writer-director or actor in several other very good productions.
Les combattantes (2022)
Subtitles jump around!
I'm actually not sure what to rate this--I didn't get very far. The subtitles jumped from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen unpredictably--I never knew where to look. It was so odd, so distracting, that I couldn't keep watching. Why on earth did they do the subtitles this way? The subject matter was promising. I don't mind the foreign language. The cinematography looked good, as did the acting. But the choice to keep the subtitles jumping around was deeply flawed. In order for the subtitles to be seamless--for viewers to almost forget that they are reading the dialogue--it needs to stay in one place on the screen.
Beowulf (2007)
It's entirely in CG!
I was surprised to find that this film was shot entirely in computer graphics--no live action. I wasn't prepared by anything I'd read, including the jacket on the DVD itself. Why weren't the producers more open about this? Did they think we wouldn't notice? The CG gave the movie an unintended creepiness-the figures looked almost alive, but not quite, giving the impression that they were animated corpses. I'd much rather see real people. In addition to the problem of the almost-but-not-quite-right appearance of people, I didn't like how much the CG allowed the producers to show. When the appearance of a monster is implied rather than suggested, it takes some of the power out of the effect.
Teacher's Pet (2004)
Talks down to kids while also being cynical and mean-spirited. Boring.
A disappointment. No, there is no bad language, no sex, no violence. Yes, it's animated and has some good music. But that's not all you need for a good family movie. How about a script? Narrative flow? The story was boring and the action was dragged out as filler. The real problem is that there just wasn't much of a story here. I was also bothered by the cynicism and irony. The movie is ostensibly meant for young kids (bright colors, simple story) but has the mean spirit of a movie made by (and for) a much older audience. The musical numbers were nice and the voice talent was top-notch, yet there was no there there. One more gripe: the stylized animation, although meant to be hip (I think) just seemed unappealing.
Elizabethtown (2005)
Atrocious, fake, pointless, boring, and totally without any redeeming qualities.
Why did the characters do what they did and felt what they felt? Who knows. What was the point of the story? What WAS the story? Can't tell. Oh, Susan Sarandon! Why were you involved in this slow motion train wreck of a movie? The concept for the movie must have seemed like a good one--young man, fired from his job and believing his life is over discovers the reason for living by (ironically) planning and attending his father's memorial and then driving across country afterward. The journey is plotted out for him by a woman who might or might not be his soulmate. Okay, an interesting basic concept. But the director doesn't seem to have known what he wanted to convey--comedy, pathos, soul-searching, romance. And there seems to have been a conspiracy of the director, the script, and the actors themselves to prevent us from knowing or understanding anything about the character's inner lives, let alone what was actually going on. Much of it didn't make sense--why was he fired? What exactly was wrong with the product? Why did his company invest so much money in a new, untested product? Why didn't he know any of his relatives? How could his mother learn to tap dance in four days (and teach herself organic cooking, and go to comedy school, AND travel to Kentucky in that time)? What was that thing about the guy who supposedly cheated his father? Illogical. And the illogicality didn't even serve a purpose. Insulting to the viewer. Not entertaining. And it dragged on and on.
Secondhand Lions (2003)
Trite, saccharine--potential for a good story that was poorly directed and written
I received this movie accidentally through the mail. I was wary of it because I suspected it had that "Cider House Rules" feeling--a potentially good story that was ruined by being tarted up, overacted, poorly written, and poorly directed. Too obvious. Melodramatic. Overblown characters that were clichés, caricatures, rather than real people. It could have been good, and I think that must be what most people who like it are responding to (in both movies)--a nice coming of age story. But the finished product stunk. Is it Michael Caine's fault? He was fine in "Batman Begins." No, I think he just has a knack for picking schmaltzy directors. Or maybe he, like me, yearns for good storytelling and hoped these movies would turn out to be as good as their stories would have suggested.