Ryan and James talk to aliens when they review Arrival.
If you noticed Veteran’s Day fell on a Friday, you might have also predicted that Hacksaw Ridge might see an increase in business, an increase that made it the Best Performer this week, thus adding a $2m bonus per screen. Four teams took advantage of this, but Radley Cinemas‘ lineup included Trolls, which saw a modest drop from last week’s box office, giving him his fifth win of the season.
We’re two weeks away from crowning a winner for the Nerdy. Will Radley Cinemas maintain the lead or will ColoRadJoe or Jason’s Farthouse Cineplex mount a comeback? Will Movies After Ass ever post a new lineup? Fantastic Beasts is going to do huge business, an thus an expensive play, so will it be worth including in lineups? If not, sorting through many of this week’s mid-range options might be the deciding play of the season. No pressure. #allthepressure
You know how when you’re wanting to go to the movie theater and you look up all the films that are showing and there are alway at least three that you’ve never heard of, let alone have any interest in seeing? Well, good news! I’ve seen those movies. I spend most of my theater experiences in art house theaters watching those movies that you’ve never heard of and then never watch. Yeah, I’m that hipster asshole. My goal with this is to spread information out about these films, that way you can decide one of the following. “That actually sounds pretty cool! I want to see that now!” or “Man, I’m glad I decided to go see the new superhero movie!”. So without further ado, here is my article and review of High-Rise.
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It’s standard irony that the first two reviews after Halloween have both been bizarre workaround horror films. Much like how The Neon Demon is a workaround vampire films, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise is a work around haunted house film. It has all of the traits of a haunted house film, along with other traits that make it more Art House like and “smart”. The film is also a mess and convoluted. But we’ll get into that a bit later.
Also similar to The Neon Demon, I wouldn’t call myself a fan of the director. I haven’t seen enough of Wheatley’s filmography to have a big opinion on him, to be fair. But the film that I did see, A Field in England, I was not a fan of. So I went in with somewhat low expectations. And I came out with a conflicted opinion of a film I think I like. But I might not like it. I’m kind of in the middle on this film.
From watching the trailers and other work of Wheatley, I can tell that he absolutely loves the 70s. Which is fine. I also love the 70s. It is probably my favorite decade. But Wheatley is pretty obsessed. The film never gives a date for when the film takes place, but you would be understood if you assumed it took place in the 70s. This has been the longest transition for any article ever to get to the point that the set design and the costume design is the best part of this film. The design of the building is completely gorgeous. Which is understandable as it is the main point of the film.
High-Rise follows a doctor, played by Tom Hiddleston, who moves into the new luxury apartment high rise. A building designed so that you would never have to leave. A gym on one floor and a grocery on another. The higher you are in the building, the more expensive your apartment will be. If you couldn’t figure it out, the main point of this film is class warfare. Literally warfare. This film gets extremely violent.
Some have compared this film to Snowpiercer. Personally, I liked this much more than I liked Snowpiercer. And a lot of that has to do with the costume and set design. These two categories go all out on this film. All of the sets are gorgeous and all of the costumes are gorgeous. But where there is beauty, there is also a dark linger to it. One that isn’t clear but is present. Something you can feel but can’t see. Until you can. And it becomes strange and extremely obvious.
Also similar to The Neon Demon, this film changes around halfway through. There is a turning point in this film where it becomes more mystical. Where The Neon Demon turns into a vampire film. Where this film turns into a haunted house film. It’s when this film gets violent and “exciting”, but honestly, it’s where the film falls in my mind. This film goes one to one million in a matter of seconds. And you are probably thinking that it just starts with a bang, but it doesn’t. It isn’t a sudden snap change, but a fade change that happens far too quickly. If that makes sense. In a snap change, like The Neon Demon, you go “Oh! This is different! But this is what we are doing now”. But in a rapid fade film like this you end up thinking “How did this happen? Why is everyone panicking? Why are we all bleeding all of the sudden?” This feels like an issue of both pace and writing. I knew what caused this to happen, but I didn’t know why everyone was reacting this way to it. It felt like the second act started with the characters feeling like they should in the third act but were playing catch-up the whole time. I worry that this isn’t clear enough, but I can’t figure out how to describe this any better.
The class warfare angle works, but will only work if you let it. This film is kind of absurd. There is no way this would happen and if you need realism in your films I wouldn’t recommend this one. But I had a fun time with this film because I choose not to try to poke holes in it. The film is a complete mess, with nothing making sense and nothing being real. But I am positive that was on purpose. You don’t make this thinking it is clean and proper. You don’t accidentally make this. Wheatley made this film with the intent of it being complete bonkers and being a crazy meltdown of a film. So you might not like that it doesn’t make sense or that it is non-sensical but that is completely the point. He did exactly what he wanted to do.
I really wanted to give this film four and a half stars. I really did. But the sudden fade in the film completely killed the film for me and the second half of the film kept dragging on me. I do really like this film. There is a lot of like about it, but there are also so many road bumps that it is hard to say it’s a smooth ride. I got too distracted by these other angles that I couldn’t focus on the larger picture, that is if there ever really was one.
The Reel Nerds forget everything they know when they review Doctor Strange.
What a ‘strange’ week. Who knew people wanted to see trolls half as much as Marvel’s newest film? Three teams guessed well but ColoRadJoe guessed spot on and picked up the season’s first Perfect Cinema which carries a $5 million bonus. This win also practically eroded Radley Cinemas‘ massive lead which sent him crying into the corner. PeterParker played his best hand of the season, narrowly edging-out Jason’s Farthouse Cineplex.
Next week sees the ‘arrival’ of another slate of multiple releases that should make finding that Perfect Cinema even more elusive.
You know how when you’re wanting to go to the movie theater and you look up all the films that are showing and there are alway at least three that you’ve never heard of, let alone have any interest in seeing? Well, good news! I’ve seen those movies. I spend most of my theater experiences in art house theaters watching those movies that you’ve never heard of and then never watch. Yeah, I’m that hipster asshole. My goal with this is to spread information out about these films, that way you can decide one of the following. “That actually sounds pretty cool! I want to see that now!” or “Man, I’m glad I decided to go see the new superhero movie!”. So without further ado, here is my article and review of The Neon Demon.
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I understand if you are tired of this film. The Reel Nerds did an entire episode on this film, straight up doing a shot for shot breakdown. But I want to do a lot of more accessible more films after the month of films that aren’t going to come out for another couple months. So we are doing this film for that reason and because a couple different people have asked/requested me to give my opinion on this film. So yeah, that’s the prequel to why I’m doing a review on this film this week.
So what did the asshole of the group think if this film? I thought it was okay. I’m wouldn’t call myself a fan of Refn. But I wouldn’t say I dislike his films either. I liked Drive and Bronson, if you haven’t see Bronson do yourself a favor and go watch Bronson, but disliked Only God Forgives. If someone was to ask me how I would rank his filmography, I would say it goes Bronson> The Neon Demon> Drive> Only God Forgives. Now that I have said this you are probably looking back up at my star rating and thinking “Hey! What’s up with that?” Well, we’ll get into it. But I think this film is really good at three-fourths of what it wants to do. Which is better than most films, but that last quarter bugged me more than I would have liked it.
First of all, this film is flat out gorgeous. The cinematographer is Natasha Braier and is one talented lady. She has also worked on The Rover and XXY. Both of which being very well shot films, but with this film, it is something different. I don’t know if Refn just lets her down whatever she wanted or if it was a collaborative effort. Where Refn’s other films are well shot, this film is on another level. And this is ten times better shot than Braier’s other work. So it’s hard to tell exactly who is responsible. Either way, this film is THE BEST shot film I’ve seen all year. I’m not exaggerating that you can pause the film at any point and that shot will be good enough to be a wallpaper. I don’t think anyone would argue that the cinematography is the film’s strongest point, but it should be noted that no one is pulling your leg or over hyping this film. This is the best shot film of the year and I would be surprised if that changes.
Let’s now talk about the acting. I would say that all of the supporting actors, besides Jena Malone, are good in the film. I was never taken out of the film because of the acting and in some scenes, like the scene where the photographer asks the other guy if this one girl is beautiful, the acting is pretty great. But there are some bad spots in the acting. It might just be me, but I could not stand Jena Malone in this film. Every line was so overacted. Every facial expression was overacted. I would say that Elle Fanning did this too, but to a much lesser extent. Fanning did it every once and a while but Malone did it with every line. She performed, ironically, like she was in a Lynch film. Like it’s dreamlike or surrealist, but that works in Lynch films because everyone is doing that and that is the point. Malone is just doing her own thing the entire time and I hated every moment of it.
The writing is fine. It was strange and definitely not why you are going to watch the film. But I’ll talk about it because I’m conflicted about it. There are certain lines in the film that are really good. Again I reference the scene about who is beautiful and why that matters. But there are a lot of lines that are extremely scripted. And I will say that I’m not against films feeling like their scripted. Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite writers and every time I watch one of his films I think “Wow! That’s a great line!” not “Wow! This changes the story!” By definition, it takes me out of the film. But with Sorkin it works, it all flows together. With this film, you get one great line that works really well on paper by itself, but when you sandwich it together with two okay lines, it just ends up feeling forced. I felt that way through a couple different scenes in the film. Not enough for me to dislike the film, but I thought I would mention it.
I will say there is a moment in the film that was a turning point from me mostly liking the film to mostly thinking it is alright. It’s pretty much exactly halfway through the film, and it’s when you start to dislike Elle Fanning’s character. This is also when the film decides to really get weird. This is when the film would fall under “pretentious” in some people’s minds. One critic said they loved the cinematography but it’s when it gets into poor gore and special effects that turned them off. I’m not one-hundred percent on board with this critic but I think I can agree with it to an extent. Everything in the film is so good that when you get to the poor special effects, it just ripped me out of the experience. Maybe I’m being too picky and some people wouldn’t see the effects, but it brought me out and I thought I would mention it.
The film ends up being kind of silly in a way, but only after that point. That is when the film goes from being an artistic satire on the fashion industry, to being a vampire film. Which is fine, but the change is so sudden that right as I got comfortable in this world, it pushed me into a new one.
So yeah, I think it’s okay. It’s better than what some people are saying. That’s for sure. I don’t like nearly as much as James does, but I can see why he would like this film. It’s not for everyone but there is an audience for it. I’m just halfway into that audience.
Now there are only 4 weeks left in this season now, and Madea has once again surprised everyone as the back-to-back weekend champion over newcomer, Inferno. We had two choices for Halloween-themed films this year, and apparently America wanted to laugh (laugh?) more than shiver. A couple teams picked up on this and, while Radley Cinemas took the top lineup, Doctor Acula’s Movie Funhouse posted his best week of the season, coming in second place just barely above Tyler Perry’s A Medea Cineplex who redeemed himself by loading up on his namesake to place third. Ouija 2 and Jack Reacher 2 let everyone else down. No one had this week’s BP, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, in their lineup, but we’ll all take Diwali seriously now won’t we?
At the 2013 Telluride Horror Show, we met legendary stop-motion animator Phil Tippett, who was presenting his latest work: Mad God.
Now, that work has been translated into a VR experience in a collaboration with Transport. Find out how you can insert yourself into Phil’s amazing stop-motion creation at https://transport.wevr.com/mad-god!
There’s another good video on Phil’s blog that describes how they brought his work to life in the VR world.
The Reel Nerds celebrate Halloween by each listing their favorite Halloween-themed movies!
You know how when you’re wanting to go to the movie theater and you look up all the films that are showing and there are alway at least three that you’ve never heard of, let alone have any interest in seeing? Well, good news! I’ve seen those movies. I spend most of my theater experiences in art house theaters watching those movies that you’ve never heard of and then never watch. Yeah, I’m that hipster asshole. My goal with this is to spread information out about these films, that way you can decide one of the following. “That actually sounds pretty cool! I want to see that now!” or “Man, I’m glad I decided to go see the new superhero movie!”. So without further ado, here is my article and review of I, Daniel Blake.
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Really? This won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year? This film? Not American Honey, Toni Erdmann, or even Hell or Highwater? This film was declared the best film at Cannes, the most prestigious film festival of the year. I mean, the film isn’t bad. But it all of the films I just listed are better films. And this isn’t even a matter of artistic choice and preference. Last year Dheepan won the Palme at Cannes, but I personally thought Youth was the best film of the year. Both were fantastic films, they both sit in my top ten of 2015. I personally liked the artistic choices in Youth better than Dheepan, but I can see why some would like Dheepan more. I, Daniel Blake is just an inferiorly made film. There are basic filmmaking issues in the film that I can look past but these are elements that are needed in a good film, especially the winner of the Palme d’Or.
I, Daniel Blake is a film directed by Ken Loach at the prime age of 80 years old. I will admit that I have not seen any other films by Ken Loach, so if I complain about something in this that sounds like his style then I apologize but I will say that his style is poor here. The film follows Daniel Blake, played by Dave Johns, an old widowed man who is attempting to find any kind of income while he heals from a heart attack that leaves him without work. Daniel Blake soon befriends a mother of two who is dealing with her own financial struggles, played by Hayley Squires. The film follows them on their endeavors and their dissatisfaction with the house tax and the Employment and Support Allowance in the UK.
The film ends up being “Let’s Watch Daniel Blake Get Annoyed With The ESA And Build Things For This Unfortunate Family: The Movie”. You get to see him talk to people in person who don’t help him! You get to see him try to work a computer! You get to see him wait while his call is on hold! Were you disappointed in how loud and fast American Honey was? Then this film is just for you! I say that as a joke, but the target audience for this film and American Honey are complete opposites of each other.
I understand if you say that, “Oh but this film is accurate to the reality of the ESA”! I’m sure it is, but you have to do something to win me over to want to watch it unfold. The acting in the film is okay but sometimes slips into flat out bad. Dave Johns and Hayley Squires, where I haven’t seen them in anything else, do an okay job but the writing is so bland and sometimes annoying that it is hard for me to relate to the characters. The suspension of disbelief never fully reached it’s potential for me to care.
One of the biggest issues I had in the film is that it makes everyone who works with the ESA to be a mustache twirling villain. They all hate everyone without showing any other sign of emotion or understanding. Even the one who feels bad for Daniel Blake is later brought in by her boss and is yelled at for being nice. You might think “That’s how it’s supposed to be, that’s realistic”. Except it’s not. It’s hard to describe if you haven’t seen the film, but it is comical how much these people talk with an attitude of not understanding or caring. It just doesn’t make sense and rips me out of the film.
The film has a very uninspired look to it as well. It feels very much like there was no love or emotion put into the film. As the film ended I realized that this is nothing more than a glorified Lifetime Movie. Every shot, I’ve seen before. Every scene, I’ve seen before. There is almost nothing original about this film. There are a total of two scenes that I genuinely enjoyed. The first being a scene in a food bank and the second being the scene where the film gets it’s title from. But those two scenes don’t warrant the film being called fantastic in my mind. There are too many other clichés for me to truly enjoy it.
Like I said before, this film feels like a Lifetime Movie. If you see it on television, I imagine you would like it a fair amount. But when I went in think it would be in my best of the year list, I was highly disappointed. Maybe the film needs a re-watch in the future. Maybe I should have lowered my expectations. But nothing hit it home for me. I think that people should know about the problems the film is trying to express, concerning the ESA and how hard it is for lower class citizens of the UK. But I, Daniel Blake fails in making me care for the subjects in the film. This is something that would have worked much better if it was a documentary and not a fictional story.