This article will contain short reviews of the following five movies in this order: “The Wall”, “mother!”, “Ingrid Goes West”, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Mayhem”.
This was a surprisingly good movie; the acting was good from both John Cena and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the film was nicely shot, the directing of Doug Liman was really good. Liman managed to replicate an uneasy and frustrating atmosphere that really helped to immerse the viewer into the movie and make them feel like they’re there with Cena and Taylor-Johnson. The dialogue, however, wasn’t always the greatest. It was okay for the most part, but once in a while, a bad line slipped by. The writing as a whole wasn’t the movies strongest suit. They managed to keep the story interesting and the characters engaging, but threw all of that away in the ending. The film builds up to have an amazing ending, but ultimately ruined it all. I get what they were going for, but this was too big of a tonally shift, that I really didn’t like it. The journey of getting there, however, is worth a watch.
Grade: C+
Mother definitely wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be. Yes, it was disturbing, and yes it did contain some controversial scenes, but is that really a reason to pin a movie down? The movie was striving to be the things people are mostly criticizing it for. Aronofsky brilliantly set up a tense atmosphere by using a lot of tools out of his toolbox. The sound, for example, was astonishing and so were the performances of Javier Bardem, but most notably Jennifer Lawrence, who played a character far from the one she usually plays, really showcasing her acting capabilities. The film contained a certain level of brilliance in a technical viewpoint, with the exception of some doubtingly CGI, but it fell flat in telling a metaphorical story. Aronofsky put most of his focus in generating a claustrophobic, angst atmosphere, brought to live by the two wonderful actors, rather than focus on the subtlety of his story. That’s why this one is missing out on an A but gets a B+ instead. Nonetheless this film’s worth a watch, so do so if you can, it’s out on DVD now.
Grade: B+
It’s a good film, with a contradictory ending, which was quite disappointing, as the rest of the film was a pleasure to see. Aubrey Plaza was charismatic as always and made for a sympathetic anti-hero and was believable doing so. Elizabeth Olsen I found to be good as well, which was surprising since she’s never really managed to amaze me. The ending just felt a bit flat and contradictory to the message the film was trying to put forward. It did, however, fit with the character and didn’t really come out of the blue; I just wasn’t really a fan of it. Other than that it’s definitely worth your time. It’s a topical movie and relevant to the world we live in today.
Grade: B+
This is what every kid’s movie should be: fun for both adults and children, well shot, but most importantly actually good. A lot of movies aimed at children when called bad, use the excuse that they were aimed at kids, not adults, so it’s okay for it to be bad. It’s just a lousy excuse and isn’t even a valid excuse. If you know any of the people that say that, show them this film as a counterexample, because this is a masterclass film. The cinematography is beautiful, the voice acting phenomenal, and the puppet design was fantastic. I really liked that Anderson went with 12 frames per second rather than 24 frames, since it gave the film more character.
Grade: A
It’s a more fun and less flawed version of The Belko Experiment. That doesn’t mean the film doesn’t contain any flaws; just less than The Belko Experiment. One of those flaws was Steven Yuen’s acting. He was fine for the most part but failed to deliver in the more demanding scenes. This doesn’t take away from the fact that the film was a joy to watch. Its self-awareness, its simplicity, and ridiculousness all made the film as fun as it is. Don’t expect an in-depth social commentary, go in with low expectations and you’ll have a good time.
Grade: B-
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