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Concussion (2015)
A Bit Long and Heavy But Overall Informative
This film brings to the forefront an important message. It explores the ugly side of fame in football. The repercussions of a life of hard hitting playing.
Will Smith gives a wonderful performance as Dr. Omalu. One of his best in recent memory for sure. In fact the whole ensemble is strong. Occasionally Alec Baldwin drops his southern drawl and I found that jarring, occasionally taking me out of the story.
The soundtrack was also something that I found jarring on occasion. I felt the direction was smooth and flowed quite well and the movie doesn't seem as long as its 123 minute run time.
If you're a fan of the game of football then go see this.
The Other Side (2014)
Flat Story-line, Mediocre Acting and Sluggish Directing. Decent SFX
I usually am a fan of independent cinema and the horror genre in particular but in the past several years I've watched more and more actors take less risks and therefore deliver stale and mediocre performances.
Unfortunately The Other Side suffers from this 10 fold. The writing isn't stellar so they are already behind the 8 ball there. And the directing is extremely sluggish. There is no smooth transition from scene to scene anywhere in the movie. It seems the directors don't know how to draw out performances from their actors very well.
The biggest problem with this title is the acting. There is no consistency. In a few of the longer scenes the struggle for the actor(s) to remain engaged with their character is apparent. Its as if none are trained. They don't seem to understand how to get from point A to point B in the scenes. They don't have the "chops" to maintain the through-line of the scene.
For instance the character Joe had the weakest characterization of the film. There was a lot of fluff but no substance from this young actor. It also seems some of these actors are unsure of how to explore a character to create a back story.
The SFX were a bit less than what I'd normally expect from a $50,000 film (were these students?) but overall they served the purpose they needed.
The biggest disappointment for me was that I just wasn't invested in any of the characters. At some points in the film (the REALLY slow moving parts) I was rooting for the main characters to be eaten. The story was in a poor act structure and the character arcs were just about nonexistent. A good director may have been able to save the last 1/3 of the film however.
This film for me just seemed to appeal to the lowest common denominator and the twist ending isn't really a twist at all. It seemed like a bunch of friends met on the weekends with a Cannon 7D and made a movie. Maybe some acting classes and directing workshops would help the people that made this. Even though I didn't care for this film, I hope the filmmakers can regroup and maybe make something with substance someday.