It’s not just that these type of films devalue animation (which they do, despite also relying on it heavily), it’s that they’re also actively devaluing the experiences that audiences deserve. Recycling the same stories over and over and over again puts us in a cultural loop where the deeper political themes of the art we engage with grows increasingly stale and pushed to the background. Studios don’t need to continue to push the boundaries of storytelling when they can…
Realistically, they absolutely should have adapted The Survivors as a movie rather than a miniseries. “The Survivors” isn’t Jane Harper’s best book, I might even argue it’s her weakest, but it is a solidly paced mystery that keeps you hooked until the end. However, that mystery is…. maybe two hours worth of story max.
A lot of the stretching of the story to fit this extended format comes in the form of expanding on characters and their relationships with one…
“Did you kill the monster?”
Very big fan of how all of the segments incorporated water with their own symbolic meaning and that proximity to water directly contributed to triumph in each character’s story. At once both a glorious showcase of what is possible within the medium of animation and even more proof that the Predator franchise is in good hands with Dan Trachtenberg… Prey made that clear, of course, but I think Killer of Killers really helps show just how deeply Trachtenberg respects and understands the franchise and all its possibilities. Had a lot of fun watching this! Definitely liked the first segment most.
As a story about how far a mother will go for her daughter, it falls flat. As a story about a complicated web of crimes and danger, it falls flat. The whole thing is tepid and droning. I did really like Domhnall Gleeson’s “i’m a bad and dangerous American guy” accent though. That was a lot of fun. A worthy “Motherhood as a Nightmare” addition, despite it all.
“So trapped in the modern age…”
Oh, I am SWOONING over this. The central romance is conveyed so well and I think that’s because the world at large is so captivating and all-encoming. Combining a love for analog with a desire for technological progress makes for an aesthetic space that is infused with so much curiosity and appreciation and makes for an excellent source of conflict within our two leads. This desire to leap forward colliding with the inescapable tendency…
I’ve been scratching my head wondering why game-accurate Ellie Williams wasn’t in The Last of Us Season 2. Turns out she’s been massacring her way through Ballerina this whole time.
Rules when it lets Eve dominate the screen. I love that her physical shortcomings are acknowledged and require an extra level of ingenuity when it comes to how the action sequences play out. This really loses steam for me when it feels the need to insert John Wick and offer him…
Billionaires self-destructing in a fit of petty squabbles as the rest of the world suffers. So… just your average Tuesday at this point.
Always a great day when Ramy Youssef is in something new. Otherwise, this is a take it or leave it type of straight to streaming film that I anticipate forgetting about entirely by the end of June.
Like the sound of birds taking flight: distinct and certain soaring is possible. Each scene bookended by cuts to black that feel as though we are slowly moving from room to room inside a home that holds our sharpest and most tender moments. Our secrets settle into the floorboards, our laughter floats near the ceiling, our cries and shouts soak into the walls. The home sees us in a way no other place does, it knows us the most intimately. Riveted by how Sentimental Values transforms that belief into something larger and so fully realized. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it.
Found so much of this inaccessible. When it truly leans into the music, and the history of the people behind the songs, there’s something here that feels coiled and ready to spring but it never does. The central love story that is guiding this journey is often kept off screen, mirroring the couples’ need to hide their relationship within their world with a disarming choice to hide much of it from us as an audience. An early, incredibly tender moment…
The hot person to no charisma ratio is off the charts. How does one manage to fill a movie with so many beautiful, usually fantastic actors and have it amount to nothing? Most sauceless movie of the year methinks.
I do thank this movie for helping remind me that it’s probably time to cancel my Apple TV+ subscription again.
First hour left me so wary and alarmed, but it immediately slams into clarity at about the halfway point and reveals itself as something so strikingly clever and layered. Music, both scoring and soundtrack, works exceptionally well in conveying the larger narrative themes and the visual aesthetics of the film. Denzel is doing as well as one would anticipate (aka, GOAT). A$AP Rocky more than holds his own in scenes with Denzel, which is maybe one of the most impressive…