70/100
A cello master, forced to leave a special school to care for her mother, returns 10 years later and befriends the current protege. What happens next is a totally unique and seriously bizarre, sick and twisted journey that takes you firmly down one path to an obvious conclusion only to jerk you around. I wasn't quite sure how to take it - some scenes seemed to drag on and I wasn't sure where it was going - but the final payoff was well worth the trip and brought everything together ...although not in a way you'd ever expect. -- DrNostromo.com…
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A Soul Crushing Drama
This opening scene looks so innocent, and then it becomes completely heartbreaking when you realize exactly what is going on. Be prepared for a shock, as this is unlike anything I've ever seen on film and truly beyond words to describe.
We've now got a refreshing look at family life amongst the trauma these people are facing, and it's wonderfully comforting. I've not seen the underlying epidemic that this family is dealing with from this side, and it's being portrayed in the loudest way I've even witnessed.
The film is visually demanding on the senses, …
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They say that “Imitation is the highest form of flattery,” and, arguably, that might be true – but only when the imitation works. When it doesn’t, the result is more of a pale wannabe clone, and that’s precisely the problem with this latest release from writer-director Park Chan-wook. This dark comedy essentially seeks to be this year’s equivalent to the Oscar-winning South Korean offering “Parasite” (“Gisaengchung”) (2019) from filmmaker Bong Joon-ho. But, try as it might, “No Other Choice” is no “Parasite” – not by a long shot. The edgy humor that made this film’s predecessor successful was …
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Narrated as if from a series of letters to her sister “Ida”, this short feature uses some fairly grim archive to depict the deadly smog that used to descend on a London of the 1950s. With police officers reduced to using flaming torches to guide pedestrians and traffic alike, the often poetic storytelling graphically describes the scene as the city’s great monuments lurk in the shadows; people fall into the Thames because they cannot see where they are walking and we are also taken on a brief sojourn to the ultimate source of the source of this “veil”. We travel to the bowels of the earth wher…
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Whether or not I liked this movie, is still undecided. There's just not much to write home about, you know? It was okay. I had to pause on the first scene. It's a predictable drama even if the premise of each character is interesting, it's funny but it wanes the further into it you get, they're likable but not lovable. It sits in the middle of everything, mid if you will. Overall, despite the gravity of the subject matters, it lacks depth. Moreover, the title, the poster. the tagline, none of it feels cohesive with the tone of the movie.
Admittedly, I would only ever watch this for Bri…
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I didn’t watch any of the television series, twenty years earlier, upon which this was based so came to this new - and for a while it’s quite enjoyable. It picks up the story of four women, all of whom are now approaching their fifties, and is narrated by “Carrie” (Sarah Jessica Parker) as she looks forward to the wedding of the decade with her very own “Mr. Big” (Chris Noth). Meantime, “Samantha” (Kim Cattrall) is starting to have doubts about her relationship with her hard-working, heart-throb, actor (Jason Lewis); “Miranda” (Cynthia Nixon) has had some fairly earth-shattering news from husb…
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This doesn’t exactly get off to a flying start as siblings “Jared” and “Simon” (Freddie Highmore) arrive at a rundown house with their elder sister “Mallory” (Sarah Bolger) and the mum (Mary-Louise Parker). There is no sign of their absentee dad/husband (Andrew McCarthy) so we are left to assume the worst about his commitment to his family. Of course then there is the usual familial petulance, door slamming and stropping as nobody really wants to live in the ramshackle joint. Luckily, from now on the film diverges away from family melodrama as things start going bump inside the walls and they …
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“Charlie” (Mike Myers) is a San Francisco poet, of Scots ancestry, who has a sort of nervous paranoia that ensures he never really has too much luck with the lassies. Then he encounters “Harriet” (Nancy Travis). She uses a cleaver and an apron for a living, and seems to be able to look beyond his character flaws. Meantime, the newspapers are full of stories about a serial killer called “Mrs. X”. She appears to have taken something from the black-widow spider’s book of marital relationships and so routinely slays her husband. As the couple get to know each other better, “Charlie” begins to susp…
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“Alex” (Alan Rickman) is driving north towards Winnipeg when he encounters the young “Vivienne” (Emily Hampshire) and gives her a lift. She’s quite an entertaining co-passenger, but before they can get to know each other better their car ends up in a crash with an articulated lorry and she is toast. He is in shock, but still determines to track down her mother “Linda” (Sigourney Weaver) to convey his apologies and condolences. What he finds when he knocks on her door, though, is the last thing he expects. She is so terribly matter of fact about the accident, about his innocence in the whole af…
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Given how the woke brigade at Netflix have pretty much ruined everything they got their hands on for years now I have to say that I was not entirely optimistic when I and the kids sat down to watch Netflix’s adaptation of Frankenstein yesterday.
However, for once, they made a surprisingly good movie. Although it, not surprisingly, do not follow the book in every detail and there are quite a bit of artistic freedom taken, it does follow the main thread and the spirit of the book.
Frankenstein’s creation is portrayed as both a scary “monster” and as the victim it really is. I think the des…
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