As many have pointed out, comedy is always based on misery. Misery is based off of stupidity. Revenge is a stupid thing to do, therefore making revenge hilarious. That is the approach to the best foreign film nominee, Wild Tales: a film of endless joys, but only if you can stomach them. I could and the laughter was inconsolable. The premise to Wild Tales, is its 6 tales of brutal, but hilarious revenge, playing out one after the other, only connected by the common theme of revenge, and the fact that the tones seem very similar. As an anthology film (a film containing short stories) that is something of absolute necessity. If the stories don't match up, if they don't fit together then the film falls apart. Wild Tales is a film that pretty much makes it impossible for that to happen. Why? It keeps stepping up it's game. Each story gets more and more warped as you go along, and this keeps the excitement, intensity, and best of all, hilarity up. With that out of the way, I would like to mention that Wild Tales pulls no punches. It's hilarious, but also brutal, taking both of those emotions and barraging you with them until you have to give into the fun. Yeah, I know that sounds odd, but frankly the movie only takes its first story to do this. The following will contain spoilers. You see the way Wild Tales warps you, is just as warped as its stories. In the first one, "Pasternak" it involves a group of people on a plane who have all gotten prepaid tickets. They start to realize that they have all done wrong, by a man named Pasternak who has as we soon find out locked himself in the cockpit. See, now the stupidity of taking revenge in such a crazy, and over the top way starts to make the entire thing funny. But this is in fact a plane falling from the sky making you in the audience panic. It's the combination of the two that really drives the movie. They create a fantastic rush that the film more than often keeps up. However, this is a hard line to walk. The film could have, at any moment tipped into being mean spirited, rather than being the blackest comedy around these days, but it doesn't. Again the ridiculousness of the stupidity is hilarious, but the work of the actors and crew also make this film shine. The acting especially. Every single story has its big star. I won't revel to much, but in the short time we see these characters we clearly see both masterings of hard drama and physical comedy. These people are putting their all into being ridiculous as well, and the result is invigorating. I would like to make special mention of the music, which had the ability to bring even the darkest scene of the movie up. I am having a hard time describing the great fun that comes from the brutal revenge of this movie. I will assure you of one thing. You won't be bored through any of it, and you'll probably be laughing. I give Wild Tales a 10 out of 10. Reviewed by Stephen Tronicek. Edited by Mia Rintoul
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Finally I will be seeing Wild Tales, and maybe It Follows. Let me say this; I had no idea what I really thought of the Divergent film series, until I walked out of Insurgent this morning. That's somewhat obvious to those who read my hatchet job of a quick Divergent review. Divergent confused me; I mean, I liked Divergent, yet there's something about it that just failed to impress me. I have finally, to my excitement and relief, figured out the problem. The films skip over being bad movies. There's a quality of the technical work put into them, and the stories have interesting ideas. No- they're not bad. In fact the films are just great at creating the theme of melodrama, action, and teen angst. They're just so redundant. Now that's actually unfortunate because I like the story so far, no matter how prosperous it is. Insurgent stars Shailene Woodley as Tris, a divergent who is being hunted by the government, and primarily the leader of her society, named Jeanine (played by Kate Winslet). The entire film from there gets pretty predictable, and the trailers have given away most everything that really goes on. That's the unfortunate truth. One of the reasons that I find the film so unmemorable is because it's very bare bones. The characters have been set up, and this film could have cut loose on doing more with them. Tris actually does get somewhat fleshed out with lots of regret, being shown by her character. Shailene Woodley holds everything up very well in that respect. She creates a really interesting character that shows lots of emotion. Woodley is really the driving force behind the movie, and I'm glad to see her strong work in a movie like this. It doesn't make as much of a difference in the end though because most of the film doesn't work quite as well. Theo James much like in the last film holds up to the standards of what is here. It's the same with the others. Kate Winslet is surprisingly effective though,and it's good to see Naomi Watts in something like this. She only gets a couple of scenes which are pretty blunt about something I'm not going to reveal, but it's pretty awesome how her story plays out even if it really isn't there. I am disappointed in Miles Teller though, who is definitely the least convincing as Peter especially since he recently has been able to drum up some brilliance in some other roles (Ha ha ha ha ha). But bare bones can't kill a film that has so many things going on in it. The action is much better than what we usually see. Every gun seems to have a ferocious blast to it. Every hit seems like it hurts. Plus the camera is for the most part still with not that many cuts in it. This is really well filmed action. It's very thrilling, and I hate to say, it's much more exciting than the most recent Hunger Games. The simulations advertised in the trailers do offer up some cool set pieces, but they're all underutilized and I wanted to see more of them. But honestly, Insurgent doesn't end up meaning too much. As mentioned earlier, the film feels redundant. The sum of it's pretty good, though parts of it are just not that engaging. I don't know why, but it just doesn't work. Okay so I've figured out that the reason why the Divergent series doesn't seem to work now I need to figure out why with all of the work that goes into them they feel so unmemorable. Still I give Insurgent a 6.8 out of 10. Reviewed by Stephen Tronicek. Edited by Mia Rintoul. Everything in Kenneth Branagh's Cinderella seems to be working towards an aesthetic that I don't often see in movies. An utter sense of joy and fun. In a movie industry that is crowded with dark and dour movies you don’t get many of films like this. But how refreshing it is, how fun it is,and how energetic it is. I'm not going to bother talking about what Cinderella is about. We all know,and Chris Weitz's script doesn't part from the main story at all. A lot of critics have taken it upon themselves to call the film unoriginal,but did not care actually. The story is definitely something we've seen,but the rest is not. Director Kenneth Branagh (much like in his best film Hamlet) has created a film of endless joy,and energy. The colors pop from the screen,and the costumes created by Sandy Powell make it all convincing. They are so lush in their beauty and color that I can't even believe their effect on me. I was just blown away by them. The staging of the film including that camerawork is just as lush as the costumes preferring sweeping shots that feel epic,and exciting. This especially makes a difference in the royal ball scene. It is a feast for the eyes that is exciting as anything you will see all year. This is really a beautiful film. But that wouldn't matter if the other aspects of the film couldn't hold up, but they most certainly do. Chris Weitz's script is again not that original,but it's witty with moments that a quite funny throughout. The dialogue is unfortunately a little bit sweet even for a Disney movie,but again this is a joyful movie trying to be sweet so in the context of the film it all works. What also makes it work is the fact that the actors are working at their bests to deliver it. Lily James is beautiful in this film,and brings a dreamy and happy sensation to Cinderella making the film’s central character very likable. The Prince is also superb allowing the dynamic of love at first sight work by virtue of the amazing chemistry he shares with James's Cinderella. But no one upstages Cate Blanchett. I was surprised by how much of a nuanced character she created with the little dialogue that she is given. There's an element of tragedy to her which she conveys in almost every scene making it impossible to take your eyes away from her. As far as the other supporting characters they don't really have much to do,but they are all doing fun work that ultimately fits the aesthetic. This is much better than I expected it to be. It's got a script that is kind of stilted and cheesy, but it's a Disney movie and the rest of it is beautiful. I find myself using that word a lot in this review,and deservedly so. This is a great film that is one of the best kids films I will ever see. Great actors, great sets,and great direction. I give Cinderella a 9.5 out of 10. Reviewed by Stephen Tronicek. I had a conversation with a cousin once who told me that movies exist only for catharsis. For the most part, I agree with this. The fantastic films cause you to release a vast amount of emotion, and the really good ones only have actions of simplicity like a quiet conversation. Frances Ha is one of the latter films, one that creates a large emotional response through a series of conversations. The one thing that holds it together is the character that lands at the center of it. Frances Ha star Greta Gerwig as Frances a woman who doesn't have an apartment and is simply trying to survive frankly herself,and the responses she has to her predicament including drinking. She is simply a lost person. This character is very well realized, but also very simple. She gets up, she tries to go to work and fails, she goes to meet with friends and drinks. Her loved ones slowly drift away from her. This simplicity allows us to pin our own emotions onto the character, and what that means is something very important. If you can empathize with a specific character, then you can tangibly connect to the movie. You feel like you’re falling into all the pitfalls of the character, facing all their struggles, celebrating their successes. The character being a twenty-seven year-old women also makes it easier for me to connect, kind of. For someone in the place I am in life, there's an utter horror as to what it will be like after this comfortable life of mine no longer exists. Frances embodies this completely, and it gave me someone to connect with. This led this film being very effective and cathartic for me. It also blinded the heck out of me as to anything that could find wrong with the film. Sure, at times it may seem slow or pretentious, but it was thoroughly engaging throughout the entire experience. I give Frances Ha a 10 out of 10. Reviewed by Stephen Tronicek. Edited by Holly Clemons When I was little my brothers and I played games in the backyard. They were ones of big fantasy adventure that after a while just became tiresome,and didn't really have anything to with character. They were thinly scripted with whatever the heck popped up in our heads at that given moment. That's what Seventh Son feels like. It's thinly put together and messy ,but there is something that I also have to remember about those games. They were maybe just a little bit...fun. Seventh Son is about Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) a seventh son of a seventh son. He is recruited by Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) to fight Mother Malkin(Julianne Moore). Everything else about the story doesn’t matter. There's a romance going on in there somewhere,but it's not like the audience cares. The story of the film is not exactly it's strongest asset. Then again this is an action/fantasy adventure movie in the middle of February. There is some basis in the story from the books that inspired it (which were my alternative Harry Potter when I was little), but it's all stripped down to bare bones. This makes the film seem cheap,and really thin. The characters here are archetypes,and are played that way making them forgettable. The "dialogue scenes" are split up by some monster set pieces that involve swords and large beasts,and they are somewhat engaging. They're at least are short enough so that the initial excitement doesn’t leave you. While the film is put together with a really crap job the makers were at least smart enough to make sure that your not sitting in the theater for too long. This movie covers all the bases of a normal action film,but does it in a tight 107 minutes. For a semi-big budget film that's a surprise. It starts,and just goes. Ok Tom gets picked up, first action beat, villain time, second action beat...etc. The film is swift,and does a nice job with that. But a junky movie doesn't need to run too long. That still doesn't mean it's not junky though. I give Seventh Son a 5 out of 10. Hey guys, I'm sorry for not posting a Beyond the Lights review last weekend I was not able to get my hands on it. I'll try again this weekend. Depending on what I can I am going to see Chappie, or Focus. Anyway I also might see What We Do in the Shadows if the theatre playing it let's me. I am 15 years old after all,and the film is not-rated so it should be fine. I can't in my right mind say anything about David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars without the disclaimer that most people will hate the film, especially in focusing on the fact that this movie is really, really weird. It's very good though. I really had a good time with it, just like with the other recent Cronenberg work. It's a crazy movie, but it achieves intensity, scariness,and biting hilarity at all the same times. It's a bold film that has a really rash thing to say, and it's not really in the mood to let anyone off the hook. Maps to the Stars is not really about one thing. It's more about a theme that Cronenberg and his screenwriter Bill Wagner are trying to very unsubtly push. Hollywood in its glamour and glory messes people up. Each one of the characters in the film all have their insanities. This makes the film not particularly fun and very grim (It's Cronenberg so that's fine), but it does make it compelling as anything I've ever seen. It also allows the film to be very darkly funny at times. The insanity of Hollywood is hilariously cringe-worthy, what with rich people complaining about their small problems. The absurdity of all of it is pushed up front and center. That's not to say that much of the film really is funny. Maps to the Stars, in fairly Cronenberg-ian fashion, has a way of destroying one’s faith in humanity. The film starts off more funny, and then takes a turn for the dark, throwing in elements of incest, murder, and schizophrenia. When it’s over you will be a little disturbed.That's not a particularly bad thing though. Again, grim is Cronenberg's thing, and he knows how to make the fall of his characters just as hard-hitting as it needs to be. What's really helpful is that the people working on the film the cast has served up some incredible work. Julianne Moore, fresh off a very well deserved win for Still Alice, actually won at Cannes this year for Maps to the Stars rather than Still Alice. That's understandable. She's startlingly good in this, and the performance would probably have as much power as her Oscar winner if it were in a more comforting film. The other real standout is John Cusack. He's not here for long, but it's really nice to see him in something that doesn't suck. He works well with the dialogue written by Bill Wagner, creating a truly despicable character. Robert Pattinson shows up and does what he did in Cosmopolis, but it works here. Mia Wasikowska also appears in a very good role. The film is kind of a large crockpot of weird, crazy ideas thrown together about the insanity of Hollywood, leading to it being quite uneven at times. The arches all come together eventually, but there are moments of inconsistency and confusion. Besides that, the cast really sells the material, however grim it may be. I give Maps to the Stars an 8 out of 10. Review by Stephen Tronicek. Edited by Holly Clemons. |
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |