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ISLE OF DOGS (2018) - FILM REVIEW (IN CINEMAS MARCH 23, 2018)

Isle of Dogs (2018)



Set in Japan, Isle of Dogs follows a boy's odyssey in search of his dog.

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(screenplay), (story) | 3 more credits »

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23 March 2018 (USA)  »

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Isla de perros  »

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Stop-motion animation is a remarkable art form. There is a certain luddite aspect to it, as the powers of modern computers could render in hours what it takes weeks for artists to physically build. But there is arguably no cinematic medium greater at conveying levels of detail or handmade craftsmanship. It ultimately makes for a unique screening experience, as you find yourself drawn into each sumptuous frame as you're embedded in the story.
Of course, not every filmmaker can pull off making a stop-motion animated movie... but writer/director Wes Anderson absolutely can. In 2009 he made his first bold move into the medium, constructing the brilliant, funny and beautiful Fantastic Mr. Fox, and now he's back with Isle Of Dogs -- a film that in many ways represents the best aspects of Anderson as an artist; pairing his wonderful auteur vision with a wholly original, weird world born out of inspiration from man's best friend and an immense appreciation for Japanese culture and art.

Based on a story developed by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Kunichi Nomura, Isle of Dogs takes audiences 20 years into the future, as Major Kobayashi (Nomura) of Japan, a renowned cat-lover, announces that outbreaks of snout flu among the canine population has made them too dangerous to be among mankind. Despite the opposition party arguing that a cure is possible with proper time and research, it is decreed that all dogs be moved to Trash Island, starting with Spots (Liev Schreiber) -- a dog from Kobayashi's own household who watches over the mayor's young ward, Atari (Koyu Rankin).
 
Six months later, the entire dog population has moved to Trash Island, all of them suffering from the effects of snout flu while just trying to survive. Chief (Bryan Cranston), Rex (Edward Norton), Boss (Bill Murray), Duke (Jeff Goldblum) and King (Bob Balaban) run in a pack together -- despite all of them being alphas -- but find their daily routine searching for scraps of food interrupted when a small plane crashes nearby. It's discovered that the young, injured pilot is none other than Atari, who has gone against his guardian's wishes in hopes of finding his lost dog. A language barrier separates them (Atari only speaks Japanese while the dogs speak in English), and Chief, a former stray among a group of domesticated friends, doesn't feel the rescue is his responsibility. But before long, they all join together to venture across the island and discover what really happened to Spots.

Because Fantastic Mr. Fox was an adaptation from a beloved children's novel, Isle Of Dogs marks the first time that Wes Anderson has truly been able to physically build a world from the ground up -- and it's such a mesmerizing experience that I internally questioned being able to properly review it having only seen it once. The film is in equal parts inspired by the works of Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki, respectively reflected in the dark, stark city and the fantastical, animal-controlled Trash Island, but it also never lets you forget that this is a Wes Anderson experience with its use of creative split screen, captioned montages, and stunning, long panning shots. Details like gusts of wind flowing through fur, colorful light refracted in broken bottles, and the intermittent dog sneeze feel remarkably precise while always feeling entirely natural; and the use of the medium even makes silhouetted conversations and cartoon-like, dust cloud-obscured brawls feel special. It can get to the point where it practically feels overwhelming -- especially because of the abundant use of subtitles -- but it just suggests that the second viewing will be that much more rewarding.
 
 
Aesthetically, Isle of Dogs brings to the table much of what film fans have grown to love about Wes Anderson's work, but there's also a certain amount of maturation from the storyteller, as well. The writer/director has long been associated with dysfunctional family narratives like those found in The Royal Tenenbaums, The Darjeeling Limited, and more, but this film, following The Grand Budapest Hotel, shows Anderson legitimately branching out (obviously the not-America setting is a big part of that as well). Crafting some fascistic parables, the movie is certainly more political than any of his past work, but rather than feeling heavy-handed or overbearing, it's balanced by his natural quirk and charm to be perfectly digestible. It's an excellent evolution for the filmmaker, and a perfect clap-back to anyone who ever called him one-note.

Of course, it also wouldn't be a Wes Anderson film without his troupe of regular players -- which is a group enhanced by a number of new stars joining the family for Isle of Dogs. The strongest role unquestionably belongs to Bryan Cranston's Chief, who is supported with a deep backstory, effective arc, and legitimate transformation -- and while the other characters aren't drawn as boldly, they're still entertainingly well-utilized. Among the main group of dogs, each has their own special affectation that helps them stand out, from Goldblum's gossip-hungry Duke to Norton's plan-devising Rex, and while they don't take over the movie at any given moment, they do make for fantastic background. What's more, Anderson's familiarity with each of their voices means that he knows the exact kind of material they can deliver, and the result is laughs from beginning to end.
Isle of Dogs is the ninth film from Wes Anderson, and an excellent showing, telling fans that he has many more and many different kinds of stories still to tell. Not only is it a fantastic return to the stop-motion animated medium, but with the help of an incredible number of talented artists and performers, it's a movie that plays on the best of the writer/directors sensibilities, while accessing entirely brand new areas of it.
 
 
 Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.

THE BEST HORRO MOVIE OF 2018 - HEREDITARY - TRAILER

Hereditary (2018)



When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover... See full summary »

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When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited. Making his feature debut, writer-director Ari Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a domestic breakdown that exhibits the craft and precision of a nascent auteur, transforming a familial tragedy into something ominous and deeply disquieting, and pushing the horror movie into chilling new terrain with its shattering portrait of heritage gone to hell.  


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8 June 2018 (USA)  »

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ĐĐ°ŃĐ»Đ”ĐŽŃŃ‚ĐČĐ”ĐœĐœĐŸĐ”  »

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JENNIFER LAWRENCE IN - RED SPARROW - FILM REVIEW - IN CINEMAS MARCH 2, 2018

Red Sparrow (2018)



Ballerina Dominika Egorova is recruited to 'Sparrow School' a Russian intelligence service where she is forced to use her body as a weapon. But her first mission, targeting a CIA agent, threatens to unravel the security of both nations.

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2 March 2018 (USA)  »

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OperaciĂłn Red Sparrow  »

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If there's one thing that can be said about Red Sparrow, it certainly has impeccable timing. In an era when the United States has serious questions about the intentions of Russia, we get a modern-day spy movie that is clearly designed to remind one of the espionage movies of the Cold War. So much so that one sequence has state secrets being transferred via 3.5" floppy disks. That is a thing that happens.

Dominika Egorova (Jennifer Lawrence) is a ballerina with the Bolshoi Ballet who loses the ability to dance following a tragic accident on stage. Since her apartment and her sick mother's health care are provided by the state-run ballet, she needs to find a new source of income and so she turns to her uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts), a member of Russia's intelligence community. He sends her to "Sparrow School," a place where young Russians learn how to seduce and manipulate targets in order to obtain valuable information for the state. For Dominka's first assignment, she must get close to CIA agent Nate Nash (Joel Egerton) and learn the identity of his informant inside the Russian government. Pretense falls away quickly, however, as Nash quickly realizes who Dominika is, but believes she can be turned into an asset for the CIA. As the relationship grows, a romance appears to bloom.

What follows is a fairly standard espionage thriller, but one dripping with atmosphere. The Russians want their Sparrow to get information from the Americans. The Americans want her working for them, and all she wants is to make sure her sick mother is safe. There are double crosses, hidden agendas, and you never really know what you're supposed to believe and what you're not.
While this works for the spy portion of the movie, it is inexorably intertwined with the romance portion of the movie, and the romance ends up falling flat. Both Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton are playing trained spies, so you'd expect one or both to at least put up a pretense of trying to not get involved in that way. It happens so quickly, and with so little chemistry, that a savvy spy movie fan might assume that one of them must be playing the other. You keep waiting for the twist... but it never really comes.

Jennifer Lawrence performs admirably in her lead role. Her accent isn't even all that bad after awhile. Lawrence shows a vulnerability beneath her tough exterior when she needs to which makes her character feel real. Still, it would have been nice to get a bit deeper into her character. Dominika Egorova seems unusually suited to being a Sparrow as she takes to it nearly instantly, but we never really learn why that is. The movie is ultimately about Lawrence's character breaking free of the control of others, but we never learn where the inner strength required to do so comes from. With as much time as we spend with her we never really get to understand who she is.

This could possibly have been done if the film had spent a bit more time in Sparrow School, which is by far the most interesting portion of the film. Charlotte Rampling is in and out of Red Sparrow all too quickly as the matron of the institution who trains her Sparrows in the art of seduction. She's the only one in the movie who gives the impression she's enjoying herself.

However, for Red Sparrow to spend more time anywhere, it would have only become longer, and at nearly two and a half hours, the movie is already long enough. The movie is paced reasonably well, so that's not so much the issue. What is the issue is that the film's violence is so visceral that the film's extended runtime makes you hope for the end just to see it stop. Red Sparrow contains multiple torture and rape sequences that are not for the faint of heart.

In the end, everything comes together in a conclusion that nearly everybody will predict some of, and some will predict all of, which is not to say it's unsatisfying. Red Sparrow isn't nearly as smart as it thinks it is, but it's maybe just smart enough to keep an audience entertained.



 Thanks for reading and have fun watching Red Sparrow, in cinemas from March 2, 2018 on.

EPIC FANTASY SCI-FI MOVIE WITH NATALIE PORTMANN - ANNIHILATION (2018) - FILM REVIEW + FEATURETTE INTERVIEW

Annihilation (2018)




TRAILER

 

FEATURETTE INTERVIEW

 

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition where the laws of nature don't apply.

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(written for the screen by), (based on the novel by)

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23 February 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

AniquilaciĂłn  »

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$40,000,000 (estimated)

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Alex Garland’s visionary, unsettling “Annihilation” doesn’t fall into the same neat categories as so many recent films in what has been a sci-fi genre boom of late. Whether it’s the big films like “Blade Runner 2049” or the Netflix ones like “Mute” and “The Cloverfield Paradox,” sci-fi is everywhere in the late ‘10s, with most of it owing a great deal to some combination of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001,” Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” and the Wachowskis’ “The Matrix.” Even within this resurgence, rarely do you see a film that’s built from the templates of Tarkovsky films like “Solaris” or “Stalker,” movies that used sci-fi in a discomfiting, emotional register because, well, that kind of filmmaking is incredibly difficult to pull off. It’s so difficult in fact that Paramount had no idea what to do when they saw “Annihilation,” barely promoting it, holding it from press until a few days before release, and selling it to Netflix for international markets. Maybe they’re still burned by the failure of “mother!,” but they’re burying a genre gem here, an ambitious, challenging piece of work that people will be dissecting for years. Don’t miss it.

What looks like a meteor hits a lighthouse in the opening shots of “Annihilation.” Flash forward, we presume, to a woman being interrogated by a man in a hazmat suit. People watch the interrogation through glass and wear protective masks even though they’re not in the same room with her. Who is this woman? Why is everyone treating her like a biohazard?

Flash back, again we presume, to a time before Lena (Natalie Portman) was possibly radioactive. A successful biologist, Lena seems just about ready to get over the grief of her missing husband—who has been gone on a covert mission for a year and presumed KIA—when he walks up the stairs and into her bedroom. Kane (Oscar Isaac) may be home, but there’s a sense immediately that something is wrong. In a quick flashback, Garland shows us a playful, smiling Kane, so we the viewers can sense along with Lena that something is not right with the dead-eyed man in front of her. Garland is brilliant in the way he parcels out information with a quick scene, line, flashback, etc.—giving us just what we need to process and analyze the action in front of us while also staying one step ahead of us, making us eager to catch up. Then Kane starts spitting up blood.

Before long, Lena is brought to a place called the Southern Reach, a research facility a few miles from that lighthouse in the opening shot. On the horizon, near a tree line, she sees what can best be described as a rainbow wall. Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh) informs her that it’s called ‘The Shimmer,’ and that they have been investigating it for three years now. Past The Shimmer, no radio signals have returned, and no manned missions have produced a survivor … until her husband. The assumption is that something in there kills people or people go crazy and kill each other. Lena, Dr. Ventress, and three others—tough-talking Anya (Gina Rodriguez), shy Josie (Tessa Thompson), and sweet Cass (Tuva Novotny)—will venture into The Shimmer, get to the lighthouse, and return. Maybe.

If you’re wondering how much has been spoiled at this point in the review, the answer is almost nothing. “Annihilation” really becomes itself once the team crosses that threshold into the woods, a fascinating setting for a sci-fi flick that reveals itself slowly. This is not an alien planet, and yet there’s a sense of danger and some sort of biological aberration within these woods. Garland reveals just enough at every turn to keep us confused but also in the moment with Lena and the crew. It’s a film that balances disorientation with the grounded performances of its cast, who keep us engaged in each interaction, believing the danger as it unfolds. “Annihilation” could have easily become campy or silly. If I described some of its scarier scenes, you might laugh, but Garland finds a way to make the insanity work, and watching that balancing act can be invigorating.

“Annihilation” is an exercise in maintaining tone and keeping the action of the piece relatable enough so that it doesn’t spin off into something easily dismissible. Cinematographer Rob Hardy, who also shot “Ex Machina,” works with Garland to use the natural world as effectively as the pair used those sleek lines and reflections of the lab in their previous film. And the sound design, especially in the climax, is spectacular, keeping us disoriented and frightened with atonal noises that almost sound like they’re turning in on themselves. Most of all, the artistic success of “Annihilation” comes down to the way Garland metes out information visually. He’ll often show us one thing and then subvert it with the next image, which is an ambitious but perfect way to tell a story about duality and corruption. There’s also a centerpiece scene involving an attack at night that’s straight-up one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen in terms of design and direction. It reminded me of the first time it's clear that everyone is probably going to die in John Carpenter's “The Thing.” 

There are times when the structure of “Annihilation” frustrated me just a little bit (although I’m eager to see it again to see if that complaint fades away)—flashbacks within flashbacks often do that—and I’m not sure Garland’s final act works as well as it could have. There’s an inherent problem with mission films like “Annihilation” in that the journey is almost always more engaging and interesting than the destination. Questions make for better art than answers. However, Garland leaves enough open for discussion that he saves it artistically. And he produces some of his most striking visuals in those closing scenes.

“Annihilation” is not an easy film to discuss. It’s a movie that will have a different meaning to different viewers who are willing to engage with it. It’s about self-destruction, evolution, biology, co-dependence, and that which scares us the most—that we can no longer trust our own bodies. It's meant to linger in your mind and haunt your dreams. In this recent wave of sci-fi films, it's one of the best.




Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.

20 MINUTES - ALL TRAILERS OF WEEK 8, 2018



Watch all trailer of week 8, 2018.


00:00 Pacific Rim 2
00:30 Blockers
02:45 Cover Versions
04:08 Descendants 3
04:38 Jurassic World 2
06:10 Kings
07:05 Wicked Moms Club
08:34 On Chesil Beach

Thanks for watching and enjoy your journey through the movie world.

INCREDIBLE ACTION AND CRIME TO WATCH IN - GAME NIGHT (2018) - FILM REVIEW

Game Night (2018)




A group of friends who meet regularly for game nights find themselves trying to solve a murder mystery.

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23 February 2018 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Noche de juegos  »

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"Game Night," about game-loving partiers who get drawn into a web of danger, is a raucously funny film that has a knack for going right up to the edge of nastiness. Written by Mark Perez and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein—who cowrote "Horrible Bosses" and "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" and helmed the 2015 "Vacation"—it starts out borderline ludicrous and keeps piling on improbabilities, until it leaves our world behind and become an exercise in absurdity.
The main couple, Max and Annie (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams), hosts a regular game night at their suburban home. A cleverly-edited opening montage shows that games like Pictionary, Scrabble and charades are the foundation of their relationship and led to their marriage. The game night covered in this movie includes Ryan (Billy Magnussen), a dimwitted friend of Annie's; Sarah (Sharon Horgan), Ryan's much smarter date; the husband-wife team of Kevin and Michelle (Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury); and Max's estranged brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler), who's a success in ways that Max can only dream about. 

Then Brooks invites the guests out to his rich-guy house for a different kind of game night, modeled on those murder mystery dinner parties that became a fad a few years ago, and "Game Night" becomes a roller coaster ride, whisking the audience through broad slapstick, deadpan exchanges and imminent threats that sometimes erupt into mayhem. 
Brooks gets kidnapped in a home invasion that everybody else assumes is just part of the game, and threatened with murder if the others don't deliver a precious Faberge egg to a scary-voiced mastermind who's giving them orders from afar. The rest of the team splits up into pairs and tries to solve the mystery in their own way, their paths periodically re-crossing, only to diverge again. 
If you've seen "The Game" or other films in which an escapist adventure turns weird and frightening, you'll anticipate some but not all of the twists and turns of "Game Night," and you'll appreciate the way that the screenwriter and directors tie them to the psychology of the characters, and structure the film as a journey of personal as well as narrative discovery. The brothers' mutual resentment and rivalry is nearly as important here as it was in "The Game." Max and Annie's inability to conceive a child comes into play as well, as do the psychologies and pasts of other game night participants. A subplot about Kevin's obsession with figuring out whether Michelle was ever unfaithful to him has a terrific payoff that flips over on itself. There are juicy bits for supporting players as well, including Jeffrey Wright as an FBI agent, Danny Huston as a decadent rotter (his specialty), Michael C. Hall as a scary criminal known as The Bulgarian, and Jesse Plemons as the divorced and seemingly personality-free cop who lives in the same cul-de-sac as Max and Annie and seems obsessed with getting invited to game night again. None of these characters are quite as they appear on first or second glance. 

"Game Night" is a nearly perfect entertainment for adults over a certain age. There's a madcap car chase, a violent incident that leads to impromptu surgery, and a house party with echoes of the masked spectacle in "Eyes Wide Shut," but it's all entwined with commentary about aging, disappointment, doomed romanticism and sibling rivalry.e actors put it all across with flair—especially Bateman and McAdams, who complete each other's thoughts so deftly that they really do seem as if they've been married forever, and Plemons, who steals every scene he's in through deft underplaying. And while there are a few touching moments, the film never tries to claim sentimental or revelatory power it hasn't earned.

Control of tone is essential in any film that doesn't adhere to a familiar formula, and luckily for the audience, Daley and Bernstein are on top of things. They've got a knack for figuring how how far is too far, pushing right up to the border, then stopping with one toe over the line. The understated cartoonishness, anchored in Bateman and McAdams' deft teamwork, helps a lot. Characters keep sustaining physical injuries that would kill or incapacitate people in reality, only to bounce back and resume the game, but their mishaps are calibrated so that they just seem to smack a bit of sense into them, like an exploding cigar or an anvil on the head in a Bugs Bunny short. This is one of the best surprises of a still-young movie year: a comedy that takes nothing seriously except fun.



Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.

DISCOVER JESUS FROM A DIFFERENT SIDE - CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE JESUS JERK (2018) - FILM REVIEW

Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk (2017)



A teenage boy comes of age during the Reagan years, discovering that he really enjoys many pleasurable things that his family- and his religion- frown upon...

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2017 (USA)  »

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Eric Stoltz adapts Tony DuShane's autobiographical novel about a teen trying to be a good Jehovah's Witness.
"This all happened because of a Sears catalog," admits a post-adolescent voice in Eric Stoltz's Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk, referring to the erotic power of tame underwear ads in a pre-internet household whose parents did their best to keep racy, "worldly" temptations at bay. That's one of many details giving the ring of truth to this memoir about coming of age as a deeply conservative Christian, a period piece about the battle between hormones and Heavenly thought. But the scene-setting works better than the storytelling in this sincere but clumsy picture, whose script (by first-timer Tony DuShane, author of the book it was based on) makes a bit of a muddle of the interactions between its teen and adult Jehovah's Witnesses (and the occasional troublemaking nonbeliever). Though some adult refugees from puritan upbringings may appreciate seeing their lives represented here, the film's commercial outlook is dim.

The "Jesus jerk" in question, Gabe (Sasha Feldman), is really less of a jerk than someone being jerked around by others' unreasonable expectations. Expectations like the belief, firmly if inexplicably held by adult males at his church, that he and his 16-year-old buddies can get through high school without masturbating. The film knows better, and does a good job of conveying Gabe's cognitive dissonance: He routinely gives in to this and other temptations, but his self-image remains that of a pure-living Witness who will come out on the right side of Armageddon.

Gabe drinks from time to time, is relaxed about penny-ante sins and even goes along with it when his bad-girl cousin Karen (Lauren Lakis) pulls down her top and puts his hand on her. (That happens right after she makes a casual reference to being molested by her father, something the movie is bizarrely uninterested in.) Shortly after this scene, we watch Gabe at school, where he is getting up the nerve to express interest in a girl. Viewers may be puzzled by the weight given to the first time he touches the hand of his second- or third-choice classmate crush, given the previous encounter. But the breast-grope actually hasn't happened yet — one of several instances where chronology is jumbled for no apparent reason.

Also strange is the insertion, at seemingly random points, of documentary-like interviews with older Jehovah's Witnesses. Little of what they say reveals much about the story's themes, and none of it bears specifically on its characters. Given how little the talking-head moments add, it's hard to justify breaking up a story that is already having a hard time pulling us along with it.
Gabe's romantic anxieties are universal enough that we can empathize on autopilot, even if it sometimes seems there are enough beautiful girls making themselves available that he shouldn't be worried. (In some cases, the script invests time in establishing a potential love interest only to forget about her completely.) And though it's less universal, the screenplay helps outsiders understand how a minor or non-existent infraction might get a believer "disfellowshipped," or shunned by his peers for a set period of time. (One adult is said to have been exiled for the sin of voting in the presidential election.)

But the film is more opaque about some intrachurch controversies that seemingly cause its most dramatic event. We twice catch a glimpse of a book, Crisis of Conscience, that seems to be causing believers to question their leaders; a few mentions of a controversy in Malawi back this up. But we're not given nearly enough information to understand how this could lead to a climactic tragedy, or to guess what it says about the Elders who lead Gabe's church.

Gabe's father (Paul Adelstein) is one of those Elders, a stern man who believes he's loving his child by trying to keep him away from the Devil. We know the type, but Confessions hints at darker specifics (his physical anger; his wife's sneaky drinking) that, if explored more sensitively, might have made us care about the man and feel for his predicament. It's tough to raise a child when you truly believe that being human will condemn him to hell. And, at least in this case, it's hard to care much about the son without understanding the father who made him this way.

At the end I just wanted to say that I am not sure about giving 4 or 5 stars. But I decide to go for...
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
 

RAMPAGE (2018) - TRAILER

Rampage (2018)



Based on the classic 1980s video game featuring apes and monsters destroying cities.

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(screenplay by), (screenplay by) | 3 more credits »

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Primatologist Davis Okoye shares an unshakable bond with George, the extraordinarily intelligent gorilla who has been in his care since birth. But a rogue genetic experiment gone awry transforms this gentle ape into a raging monster. As these newly created monsters tear across North America, destroying everything in their path, Okoye teams with a discredited genetic engineer to secure an antidote, fighting his way through an ever-changing battlefield, not only to halt a global catastrophe but to save the fearsome creature that was once his friend.

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20 April 2018 (USA)  »

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Rampage  »

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NETFLIX HIGHLIGHT IN FEBRUARY - IRREPLACEABLE YOU (2018) - FILM REVIEW

Irreplaceable You (2018)



A couple who have known each other since 8 are destined to be together until death do them apart.

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16 February 2018 (USA)  »

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Perfeita Pra VocĂȘ  »

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When Abbie, who thinks she is pregnant due to the bloating in her belly, instead gets a diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer, her reaction is stunned shock, followed by a quip to her fiance, "At least we won't have to pay for college." He replies, "Unless it's a really smart tumor." There's a pause and he murmurs, "Too soon." "Irreplaceable You," written by actress Bess Wohl and directed by Stephanie Laing, is filled with dialogue like that, self-conscious "quips" meant to be witty gallows' humor, an adorable spin on denial. Grief does not look a certain way (and the expectation it should does a lot of damage to those going through it), but the language here is off-putting, skipping off a too-beautiful and insistently color-corrected surface. The dialogue creates an arch and artificial mood, never sounding like real talk despite the clearly talented actors (Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Michiel Huisman) playing the roles. The film itself seems to be in denial about its own story.

The "adorable" quality starts early when it shows how Abbie and Sam met. They were eight years old on a field trip to an aquarium, and when the tour guide describes how the monogamous deep-sea angler fish bites its chosen mate, young Abbie leans over and bites Sam. They have been together ever since in an uninterrupted continuum of monogamous coupledom. Her cancer diagnosis is the first event to tarnish their eternal intimacy. Adding to the sense of unreality, the couple live in a gigantic sun-drenched loft in New York, which looks interior-decorated by a professional. Abbie doesn't know how to cook a chicken. They eat takeout. Why, then, do they have an industrial sized kitchen, the walls lined with professional-grade cookware? (The tendency to put New York film characters into completely unrealistic apartments is so common as to be mundane, and when a film accepts the space challenges most New Yorkers live with—even New Yorkers with good jobs—it's such a welcome breath of reality.) "Irreplaceable You" gives cancer the most glamorous backdrop possible.

Abbie's reaction to her diagnosis is to search for a new mate for Sam, someone who can take care of him when she's gone, who can make sure he doesn't wear mismatched socks. She creates an online profile for him and interviews potential candidates. She never seems sick, despite the seriousness of her diagnosis. She throws up from her treatment once. She's not exhausted or in pain. Nothing changes in her physically. Maybe it’s unreasonable to be annoyed by this, but if you’ve experienced the death of a loved one from cancer, you know how bad it can get, how extreme the challenges can be. In “Irreplaceable You”, cancer is used mostly as a plot point to get the story started. Abbie’s cancer diagnosis is implicit as opposed to explicit, and there is no sense over the course of the film—with one or two exceptions—that the cancer is having any effect on her at all. This is a huge missed opportunity.

The cancer support group Abbie attends is filled with characters played by heavy-hitting actors, many of whom far surpass both Abbie and Sam in interest. These scenes generate real sparks. There's Steve Coogan, as the group leader, who insists the crocheting he makes them do is "not a metaphor." Kate McKinnon plays a woman in such denial about her diagnosis she insists, with bright manic eyes, that she's "blessed.” Her positive attitude drives everyone crazy. She vibrates with a tragic intensity missing from the rest of the film. Christopher Walken plays Myron, a man with a terminal diagnosis, who befriends Abbie. They spend time together. Their friendship is a huge aspect of the film. Myron is mainly there to be a sounding board for Abbie's "project" to marry Sam off. He thinks she's insane and tells her she is displaying signs of "anticipatory grief," an insightful comment.

There are some good scenes between Abbie and her mother (the wonderful Tamara Tunie), where Abbie pushes her mother away, resenting the worried interference. There are some good scenes between Myron and Abbie, especially when Myron opens up about his own marriage. Walken's line readings are so his own the language takes wing for the first time. "Ugly. Purple. Couch," he says. "My wife put it in the living room and I was angry for two years." He brings with him the world-weary gravitas of a man who has seen it all, who still enjoys the simple things, who will miss his wife (Jacki Weaver), will even miss the ugly. purple. couch.

In an episode of the television series "thirtysomething," during the arc where Nancy (Patricia Wettig) develops cancer, Nancy spends more time with a new friend from her support group than she does with her family. This causes extreme tension with her husband who wants to soak up as much time with her as possible. But the people in Nancy's support group are the only ones who understand—and are not afraid of—what she is going through. These kinds of in-depth, difficult explorations are beyond "Irreplaceable You"'s capabilities. There's real poignancy in Myron's character and in Kate McKinnon's character. Abbie's journey—from denial to acceptance—is important, but it's wrapped up in a package that wants to be charming, wants to be inspirational from the first frame with its posthumous voiceover and swelling music.
I'm being hard on the film. It is not without its charms. But "Irreplaceable You" pays a price for prioritizing charm. The emotional process of accepting death—for those suffering and for those who will be left behind—is exacerbated by changes in the body, the impossibility of pain management, the medical bills, the sense survivors have of their loved one moving far away, even before death, into a realm where no one else can follow, the tide going out slowly, excruciatingly. Even though "Irreplaceable You" tries to avoid this reality, it shows up anyway. It's there in Kate McKinnon's desperate gleam of gaiety, in Christopher Walken's exhausted acceptance, in Tamara Tunie's sadness hidden behind a chipper competent surface. These all feel like emissaries from the real world. Too bad the main narrative doesn't take place in the real world at all.



 
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