Anatomy Of A Fall (2023) Film Review

A woman is suspected of her husband’s murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness.

Anatomy Of A Fall is directed by Justine Triet a director who admittedly I haven’t seen all of her work but from the ones I have seen such as Age Of Panic (2013), In Bed With Victoria (2016) and Sibyl (2019) I can tell she’s such an incredible filmmaker and that is no different with Anatomy Of A Fall.  I went into Anatomy Of A Fall knowing as little as possible, all I really knew is it won the top prize at Cannes film festival (the Palme d’Or) and the praise surrounding Sandra Hüller and Justine Triet. Which after watching is very easy to see why.  

The performances are absolutely phenomenal right from the beginning you can tell the direction of how these performances are going to go. Sandra Hüller from the very beginning gives one of the absolute best performances of the year, it’s such a raw, grounded and emotional performance that really makes you invest into her character Sandra Voyter. Voyter is a very interesting character that makes the viewer keep bouncing between did she kill her husband or was she innocent? It’s a question that never really leaves the viewer’s mind at all and that’s mainly due to how incredible the storytelling and Hüller’s performance really is. There’s one scene in particular that especially stands out which is “the argument scene” it’s between Sandra Voyter and Samuel Maleski (played by Samuel Thesis) both of which do a fantastic job bouncing off of each other and delivering such a powerful moment in this film. It seriously cannot be understated how incredible Hüller’s performance really is here especially when the rest of the film happens. 

Milo Machado Graner who plays Voyter’s son Daniel is the best child performance of the year, even if you think you might know where the film could be going nothing will prepare you for when Daniel finally speaks in the courtroom. It’s such a powerful moment that really captures this chaotic but really quiet nature of the film, Daniel sharing his story in the courtroom while everyone else is silent is strangely haunting yet absolutely beautiful, the moments when Graner and Hüller are on screen together are truly some of the best in the film and really captures this mother and son bond that you can’t help but love. 

What really builds this film together is the constant tension, between the flashback scenes and the courtroom scenes there’s so much going on that it really grabs the viewer’s attention almost immediately. I hinted at this earlier but Anatomy Of A Fall has this very quiet but chaotic nature to it that truly makes the film work in every single way, the film itself never gives the viewer flat out answers as to what’s going on or the ending result. It makes the viewer decide what they think happened and I believe that’s the best possible direction to end the film. 

Justine Triet’s direction is masterful, raw and completely grounded. There’s so much emotion poured into this film filled with many layers such as relationships, the thoughts of each of the characters and past events all of which combined together create this painting much bigger than it seems. It might seem like a simple and straightforward story of a woman being framed for murder but it’s so much more than that, there’s so much exploration in each scene that you really can’t help but look around. 

Overall Anatomy Of A Fall is one of the best films of the year as well as one of the best acted and directed, it’s a powerhouse of a film that absolutely must be seen. 

Anatomy Of A Fall is available on all VOD platforms.

10/10 A+

Dream Scenario (2023) Film Review

A family man finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. However, when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, he’s forced to navigate the consequences of his newfound stardom.

Dream Scenario is directed by Kristoffer Borgli a director who’s work I’m a bit unfamiliar with but after watching Dream Scenairo really makes me want to look at his previous films because this was definitely a surprise. 

I’ve heard a little about this film but really did not know what to expect, I’ll watch pretty much anything Nicolas Cage is in and this turns out to be one of my favorite performances by him. Nicolas Cage absolutely captures the humorous and imaginative atmosphere the film is going for. He even does such a fantastic job with the more emotion bits towards the end which really just shows how easily he can blend in with the atmosphere with each scene. The rest of the cast are quite great as well Julianne Nicholson has great chemistry with Cage, Tim Meadows and Michael Cera are great in the supporting cast. 

What I find most interesting about Dream Scenario is how it progresses, it starts out presenting this very silly idea that even explaining this to someone would make them laugh. The idea that Paul Matthews who is played by Nicolas Cage randomly enters your dreams and just stands there is just hilarious. And for the first half of this film that’s exactly what it is, a crazy idea that works so well and it’s genuinely funny. But then the film takes a hammer and smashes the viewer’s heart into pieces with the satire on social media culture and cancel culture. 

I was very worried when the film presented this idea, mostly due to how films as of late have tried to tackle cancel culture it’s often done in a way that feels like the writers have no idea what they are talking about or it’s just done in a way that’s incredibly lazy. However Dream Scenario takes a character in this case Paul Matthews who the viewer wants to succeed especially now since he’s getting popular due to appearing in everyone’s dreams and makes him the target. It’s very effective and really shows that blindly going after someone is incredibly idiotic. Despite the sci-fi and fantasy elements this is shockingly quite grounded. 

Paul Matthews’s family starts to get effected by the whole situation much like in real life when mobs go after people the family of said person is often targeted as well, it’s a very surprising addition that a lot of films that try to tackle cancel culture often forget so it’s a breath of fresh air to see it being done here. The writing is truly fantastic here, while there are a few bumps in the road during the final act that don’t quite land, that’s not nearly enough to stop the movie from being surprisingly well written and genuinely funny. The moments with Cage interacting with his family are truly some of the best of the film and actually feel quite real. 

Overall Dream Scenario is a clever satire that’s well written, humorous and executes its premise very strongly. 

Dream Scenario is available on all VOD platforms.

9/10 A

The Boy and the Heron (2023) Film Review.

Mahito, a young 12-year-old boy, struggles to settle in a new town after his mother’s death. However, when a talking heron informs Mahito that his mother is still alive, he enters an abandoned tower in search of her, which takes him to another world.

The Boy and the Heron is directed by Hayao Miyazaki a director who absolutely does not need any sort of introduction, he’s a fantastic director with so many films that went on to be a huge impact on the animation genre such as Spirited Away (2001), Princess Mononoke (1997), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and many many others. With each new film he introduces new ideas or takes ideas from one of his previous films and makes it fresh. The Boy and the Heron is a prime example of just how creative, powerful and emotional Miyazaki’s storytelling really is. 

For starters the cast absolutely knocks it out of the park, everyone here does such an incredible job and matches the imaginative and emotional tone the film is going for. But the couple that really standout are Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh and Dave Bautista. Bautista plays the Parakeet King who doesn’t show up until the later half of the film, but when he does show up he truly captures the wackiness of the character. It’s a performance that should not work at all, but Bautista’s performance is genuinely hilarious it’s probably due to the Parakeet species in this film’s world being genuinely funny while a very emotional and serious plot is going on. It works strangely well and even if Bautista doesn’t stay for very long he remains as a very memorable part of the film. 

Florence Pugh plays Kiriko both the young and old version, her performance is truly incredible and actually unbelievable when it comes to her voicing the old Kiriko. Her character is a huge highlight of the film, a character that we are introduced to at the very beginning who might seem like a comedic relief character at first but later becomes important. The young version of Kiriko helps Mahito Maki and points him into the right direction of his journey to rescue Natsuko, she’s a classic mentor type character that you can’t help but love. Pugh’s performance really sells the character well and almost immediately makes the character quite lovable. 

Robert Pattinson as The Grey Heron is my absolute favorite performance from an animated film this year and I don’t think it’s even close, when the trailer for this film dropped I instantly thought the Heron was Willem Dafoe which while yes Dafoe is in this film he’s not in it for very long but still gives a haunting performance. I don’t know how Pattinson did it but this performance is truly unbelievable and truly effective right from the Heron’s first appearance, Pattinson completely matches the tone the film is going for and mixes it with a bit of humor and the Heron himself as a character has fantastic character development. It’s a classic case of not getting along with someone at first in this case not getting along with Mahito, but slowly but surely their bond builds and it’s truly delightful to see. The Grey Heron is such a fun character that balances humor and the more serious moments and Pattinson’s performance only adds on to that. 

The writing much like other Miyazaki films is truly incredible, there’s a large theme here of grief and mourning the loss of someone very close to you. In this case Mahito losing his mother. There’s a lot of moments in this film that really tie it together, the world building of the world we are introduced to can be a bit confusing at first. But as the film goes on it starts to piece itself together and tell the viewer the full story about this world, it’s visually some of the absolute best Miyazaki has ever done, that’s something that consistently gets better and better with each film and this felt like a natural build up all of these films later. 

Something that really stands out with this film is the masterful balance between humor, wackiness and the dramatic moments of the film. A film that’s about loss and dealing with grief has scenes where funny looking Parakeets want to eat people and their leader the Parakeet King is a presented as a serious but goofy boss voiced by Dave Bautista…yet it all strangely works. It comes down to just how beautiful the storytelling really is, it combines so many anime elements and genres we have seen throughout the years and presents it so well. From the classic adventure genre to the goofy villains who actually have a quite serious side to them it’s all here and delivered in such a fascinating, emotional and hilarious way that puts a smile on your face.

Overall The Boy and the Heron is yet another homerun for Hayao Miyazaki and one of the absolute best films of the year. It’s such a creative film with so much to say that it will surely go on to be a classic. 

The Boy and the Heron is in theaters.

10/10 A+

Maestro (2023) film review

On the verge of securing a golden opportunity, American conductor Leonard Bernstein begins a tumultuous relationship with actress Felicia Montealegre, upturning their lives.

Maestro is directed by Bradley Cooper which is his second film in his directing career the first being A Star is Born (2018). After A Star is Born came out and ended up being one of my favorites of 2018 and the 2010s in general, I was very excited to see what Cooper would do next with his directing career. It’s unfortunate to say that Maestro is a step down from his previous work. 

Maestro centers around the relationship between famous American composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre, it’s not a biopic in the tradional sense so at the very least it isn’t trying to do the exact same thing as a lot of other biopics. However that doesn’t mean it fully works as there are a lot of glaring issues here. 

I’ll start with what worked well here, Bradley Cooper gives a solid performance as Leonard Bernstein. There’s definitely a few hiccups at times but for the most part he does a pretty solid job, I do think he is much stronger during the last portion of the movie especially during it’s final moments. Carey Mulligan’s performance I was a bit harsh on when I first watched it, I called it “not good” which is not exactly true and would be sort of dishonest to say it is. Like Cooper there are a few hiccups but I actually think she gives the stronger performance, her entrance to the movie being the strongest moment for her performance. Everyone else does a pretty solid job outside of Sarah Silverman (I have no idea what she is trying to go for here but whatever it was it doesn’t work). 

The movie itself is beautifully done, the black and white portion of the film looks like you are looking through a very old photo album. Looking back at memories through the years, the color portion is just as strong with great use of color and combine that with the cinematography that does have some genuinely gorgeous shots. The music moments are also quite powerful, there’s one in particular that’s hands down the best part of the movie and is an example of some really strong acting and direction from Bradley Cooper. 

The main problem here with Maestro is lack of gaining investment from the viewer and doesn’t have quite the power it needs. It’s quite clear that Cooper did not want to make this a traditional biopic as I said before. However I think he goes a little too far with this, we aren’t given anything on Leonard Bernstein if you are unfamiliar with Bernstein or haven’t heard of him that you are out of luck because this movie isn’t going to tell you about his career. The movie itself is very focused on the marriage which is fine but it’s not very investing and doesn’t really capture what makes Bernstein so exciting. Which is a shame because there are some genuinely beautiful moments between Bernstein and Montealegre that really show during the music moments of the movie, showing just how important their marriage was. But a lot of the time it’s way too slow and doesn’t quite bring enough emotion to the table. 

Maestro is not a bad movie don’t get me wrong, it’s just one that had a lot of potential but everything doesn’t quite come together unfortunately. I’m sure there is an audience for this movie, this is just something that didn’t quite click for me unfortunately. 

Maestro is available on Netflix.

5/10 C

May December (2023) Film Review

Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance, a married couple buckle under the pressure when a Hollywood actress meets them to do research for a film about their past.

May December is directed by Todd Haynes who’s done some quite fascinating work such as Carol (2015), Dark Waters (2019), Poison (1991), I’m Not There (2007) and a few others. The film itself is based on a story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, it’s also loosely based on the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal. 

I didn’t know what to really expect from May December going in, it’s a film that quickly gained an audience almost immediately when it came out earlier this month after being less talked about when it premiered at a few film festivals. To say I was incredibly impressed by this film would be an understatement. 

The performances are the first thing that really sticks out, everyone here does a phenomenal job in their own ways. Each bring something truly something special and help make the film as incredible as it is, starting with Natalie Portman who plays Elizabeth an actress who travels to Savannah Georgia to meet and study the life of Julianne Moore’s character Gracie. Like with most performances Natalie Portman absolutely nails it, she plays this balance between intrigue and obsession of the world that she eventually becomes involved in. She’s sort of the viewers point of view, we aren’t so sure what’s exactly going on but once Elizabeth finds out so do we. This type of performance is incredibly fitting for a film like this especially for Portman as an actress. 

Julianne Moore plays Gracie a very controlling, manipulative as well as insecure woman who is in a relationship with a 23 year old boy named Joe Yoo who is played by Charles Melton, the relationship itself started when Joe was 13 years old. Moore’s performance as Gracie is both horrifying and incredibly raw, this is the type of behavior a lot of groomers tend to have and the way it’s portrayed here with Moore’s performance is truly powerful and absolutely scary. Moments like when Gracie makes everything about her and her only, her being dismissive of what Joe feels are what really pushes Moore’s performance from being already excellent to some of the best acting from this year. Every single scene with Portman and Moore together on screen is absolutely incredible, there’s a few moments in particular that I won’t spoil here that really standout. 

Charles Melton’s performance as Joe a man who’s been groomed for as long as he could remember is soul crushing, even if Joe is supposed to be 23 years old there’s parts of him that the viewer still sees a 13 year old due to just how incredible Melton’s performance is. That 13 year old never got to have a regular childhood, he was groomed into a relationship by someone he thought he could trust, it’s trauma that quite clearly has effected Joe and only gets worse as the film goes on. Until he finally does standup to Gracie and it leads to such a powerful performance that is truly one of the best scenes from a film this year. Melton absolutely portrays a grooming victim in such a raw, honest and soul crushing way to the point where it will make you tear up. 

There really is something to be said about the way director Todd Haynes and writers Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik moved this film along, throughout this film you have a mysterious atmosphere where we get the general gist of what’s going on but we don’t know the full details. It’s not a thrilling atmosphere in the general sense but it’s more of that not only is Elizabeth looking for answers but the viewer is as well, there’s this connection that the film builds with the viewer very early on that really makes it effective and one of the main reasons why it works as well as it does. 

One other thing this film really portrays so well is  that in situations like grooming we never hear about the victim. News outlets are of course going to mostly talk about the perpetrator especially if a celebrity (which in the film that’s the case) is the perpetrator because it brings them the most clicks. This film serves as a voice for grooming victims who don’t have anywhere near the platform that the groomer has, it’s truly powerful in execution and just works incredibly well. 

Overall May December can be a hard watch mainly due to just how raw and honest the film is about grooming situations, it’s a fascinating film that absolutely breaks your heart to watch. One of the very best of this year. 

May December is available on Netflix 

10/10 A+

Rebel Moon (2023) Film Review

When a colony on the edge of the galaxy finds itself threatened by the armies of the tyrannical Regent Balisarius, they dispatch a young woman with a mysterious past to seek out warriors from neighbouring planets to help them take a stand.

Rebel Moon or Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child Of Fire is directed by Zack Snyder. A film that I’ve been pretty excited about for awhile. This is sort of a passion project for Zack Snyder and Kurt Johnstad (one of the other writers of the film), it’s very clear the film has a ton of inspirations such as Star Wars, Dune, The Last Samurai and many others. So it’s very disappointing to see just how much of a mess and disjointed the movie is. 

Before I start I do want to acknowledge that yes an extended cut is coming out in 2024 similar to Zack Snyder’s Justice League cut. We’ll cross that bridge when the cut releases but for now I’m reviewing the movie as what it is right now. Anyway let’s get to the review. 

The performances and the visuals are what pushes the movie to the finish line, Sofia Boutella is a fun protagonist who does give a solid performance and Anthony Hopkins while not getting a lot of screentime still manages to land a touching impression on the viewer. The rest of the cast aren’t particularly noteworthy but none of them turn in a bad performance. 

The visuals are fantastic, if it’s one thing that Snyder has always been great at it’s making his films visually appealing and that absolutely applies here. Even if we don’t know much about Rebel Moon’s world it’s truly beautiful and really does make you want to explore the place, it’s huge in scale and the attention to detail in a lot of areas is very creative there’s many striking moments that standout as well. 

Unfortunately that’s where Rebel Moon ends for me, the characters on paper are interesting they are very neat looking design wise but don’t have the character development to make the viewer care about them. Something that’s very noticeable here is the characters appear, get to do a couple cool things and then are put aside as characters who stand around until a fight scene starts. This repeats throughout the movie and it’s a huge shame because you want to learn more about these characters but the movie doesn’t give any strong development. 

The same can be said with the world building, while yes the world itself is very neat to look at. Once again the movie unfortunately doesn’t give the world the proper development it needs, it really leaves the viewer in the dark a lot of the time and not in a good way, I still do very much like the look of it and It does make you want to explore. But at the same time I want to actually learn about it, it’s all very vague and loses the viewer very quickly. 

Finally there’s the villains who are pretty by the numbers, Ed Skrein does a fine enough job in the role. But there’s just nothing here that makes the viewer care about this guy as a villain. 

Overall Rebel Moon has its moments but it’s mostly a huge misfire, can this be fixed with the director’s cut? Will the sequel that’s coming out next year be better? I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there, but for now this is a huge mess. 

Rebel Moon is available on Netflix. 

4/10 D+

Godzilla Minus One (2023) Film Review

Japan is already devastated by the war when a new crisis emerges in the form of a giant monster.

Godzilla Minus One is the 37th film of the franchise, the 33rd Togo Godzilla film and the fifth film in the franchise’s Reiwa era. It’s also directed by Takashi Yamazaki.

Godzilla is a massive franchise that through the years has many different interpretations of the creature, a bunch of which are goofy, some go for a more serious tone. The human characters are often put to the side because let’s face it a majority of the audience is there to see Godzilla cause destruction. 

Godzilla Minus One however puts the focus back on the human characters but also making Godzilla the center of the story being told, the film starts in 1945 nearing the end of World War II where we get our first look at Godzilla. Right from the beginning the viewer is greeted with the atmosphere of the film, a dark, scary and thrilling atmosphere that makes Godzilla terrifying. The goofy nature of Godzilla doing a high kick in the air is not present here it truly makes this beast the king of the monsters. 

Godzilla has represented a lot of things in this franchise such as a nuclear weapon, in Minus One Godzilla represents a reminder of the destruction from World War II. The film makes this known with a lot of the characters just getting out of the war directly saying “I don’t want to risk losing my life again and not seeing my loved ones” it’s an absolute brutal situation for the characters involved that is only made even better with incredible performances. 

The performances here are absolutely incredible especially Ryunosuke Kamiki who plays Koichi and Minami Hamabe who plays Noriko give some of the most powerful moments of the film when on screen together. Another theme this film tackles very effectively is PTSD and someone who wants to rebuild and continue forward, that someone being Koichi a man who is struggling from survivors guilt after his first encounter with Godzilla. He wants to move on to a new chapter in his life but whenever Godzilla reappears and causes more destruction, death and pain to the citizens he thinks back to his first encounter and how he could have prevented these deaths he blames himself for everything. Which leads to quite honestly one of the best moments that portrays somebody suffering from horrible memories I’ve ever seen put to film. It’s hard to watch and truly paints a picture where you almost immediately feel heartbroken for Koichi.

Hidetaka Yoshioka who plays Kenji Noda the crazy scientist character of this film, although may come off as the generic scientist type at first. Really blossoms into his own character and gets a fair amount of scenes that he really steals. Much like the acting, the writing is top notch it’s a much more grounded story of Godzilla than we have seen in the past. The citizens have so much character to them, there’s plenty of scenes where you want everyone here to make it out alive. There’s a scene towards the end where knowing their lives could be put on the line a second time just after coming home from World War II they offer to protect their home and families. It’s such a powerful human connection moment that really puts a tear into your eye it’s truly beautiful. 

Godzilla itself is a beast and as said before truly is the king of the monsters especially in Minus One, combine that with the visual effects and the action scenes and you seriously have yourself a beautiful Godzilla film. Godzilla’s design is both beautiful and terrifying, it’s the very definition of a walking nightmare that is hard to take down and gives the characters a challenge. The cinematography really compliments this well with so many gorgeous shots that truly capture the tension of each scene Godzilla strikes, the desperation of when the characters are what they are going to do about Godzilla and the absolute beauty at the end of the tunnel during the film’s final moments which almost made me cry. 

Overall Godzilla Minus One is one of the best films of the franchise and is truly one of the best films of the year. Narratively it may seem simple on the surface but once you go into the film’s themes there is so much here that the film completely mastered. 

Godzilla Minus One is playing in theaters. 

10/10 A+

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget (2023) Film Review

Having escaped from the farm, Ginger and Rocky welcome a new little adventurer into their lives. Back on the mainland, the whole of chicken-kind faces a terrible new threat.

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget is a sequel to Chicken Run (2000) and is directed by Sam Fell who’s directed Flushed Away (2006), The Tale Of Despereaux (2008) and ParaNorman (2012). 

A sequel to Chicken Run has always been talked about much like Enchanted 2 or Hocus Pocus 2 it always got a ton of fake movie posters on Facebook pages claiming it’s official when it’s really not and you get people sharing it taking it as fact. I grew up with Chicken Run and I still think it’s a really fantastic film so I was pretty happy to see that a sequel was coming after 13 years. 

There’s definitely a lot of fun to be had with this sequel, I do think out of the cast Bella Ramsey who plays Molly the daughter of Ginger and Rocky does quite a great job. Plus Romesh Ranganathan and Daniel Mays as the rats give some decent laughs. The two work together well and have solid comedic timing the accents are also quite charming. 

The stop motion animation is of course wonderful, you honestly can never go wrong with Aardman Animation when it comes to stop motion and that remains true here. Even if I didn’t like all of the voice cast the characters still have this special look to them that you can’t help but appreciate, there’s so much detail and passion put into the designs that are quite memorable. The same goes for the overall charm of the movie, although the movie is most definitely not as good as the first movie I do think it still has a lot of the charm from the first movie and it mostly works here. 

Dawn Of The Nugget does unfortunately suffer from mediocre voice acting. Thandiwe Newton is fine enough but her voice performance is just not as fitting as Julia Sawalha’s, what’s sad is Sawalha was told she “sounded too old” for the performance. It’s such a weird decision from Aardman that I still have no idea why was made.  Zachary Levi is flat out bad and really feels out of place, Levi being here really seems like they just wanted to stick a familiar face and that was about it. Mel Gibson isn’t here for obvious reasons but there’s absolutely no denying that you can really feel the difference of quality in the performance of Rocky’s character. The rest of the voice acting isn’t anything to write home about. 

The film itself does feel like a natural continuation from the first movie and while that’s great, it does end up being a bit more of the same thing. Instead of the chickens we are familiar with being trapped it’s their turn to rescue other chickens. Which definitely makes sense from a story perspective but a bit weaker when you compare it to the first movie. 

Despite the issues I have with it Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget is a fun movie especially for families looking for a quick and easy watch. There’s a lot to like about it and I said the charm from the first movie is still very much there. It’s definitely disappointing in some aspects but it is still a decent watch. 

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget is available on Netflix. 

7/10 B

The Creator (2023) Film Review

Against the backdrop of a war between humans and robots with artificial intelligence, a former soldier finds the secret weapon, a robot in the form of a young child.

The Creator is directed by Gareth Edwards director of Godzilla (2014), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Monsters (2010). 

Gareth Edwards is a filmmaker I’ve always rooted for, even when films like Rogue One don’t fully come together you can really tell that Edwards has a passion for what he does and the worlds he is trying to build. His most successful by far is Godzilla (2014) a film that did not work for me when it first came out but has since really grown on me and now I’m a huge fan of it. 

So it’s disappointing to see how messy The Creator really is, don’t get me wrong it’s nowhere near a terrible movie there was clearly a lot of passion put into it design, filming and idea wise. However when it comes from a writing perspective there is so much more to be desired and honestly feels really empty. 

The best part of the movie by far is the visuals, there is absolutely no doubt that the movie itself is beautiful to look at. There are truly some breathtaking moments that absolutely must be seen to be believed, it’s an achievement that should not be ignored at all there’s tons of beautiful set pieces that truly pop out and tell their own story quite well. Combine that with the cinematography that shows off some beautiful shots and you have yourself a visually beautiful film. 

The performances from John David Washington, Gemma Chan and the rest of the cast are solid enough, they aren’t anything groundbreaking but they match the atmosphere the movie is going for which does lead to some genuinely touching moments between the characters. 

Unfortunately that’s where the positives stop because the writing really drags this one down, ideas are mentioned but not explored nearly enough to get the viewer engaged, we have some really neat characters but we don’t know much about them. It’s a common problem that happens throughout the movie and really never goes away, we are told or shown some neat ideas, character arcs and development but we are never shown any execution or actual development to fully get on board. 

Gareth Edwards clearly wanted to say something with a lot more substance here, but it just never fully came out and instead mirrors a lot of what other AI taking over the world type of movies have said before. 

The Creator is available on all VOD platforms. 

5/10 C

Finestkind (2023) Film Review

Two brothers from opposite sides of the tracks are reunited as adults. Desperate circumstances force them into a deal with an organized crime syndicate in Boston, and a young women gets caught in the middle.

Not a whole lot to say here about Finestkind it’s directed by Brian Helgeland who directed 42. The idea of the movie itself is not bad at all, in fact it sounds genuinely interesting and I actually do think there’s a good movie here somewhere. However there are so many missteps, wasted opportunities and poor execution for it to come together. 

Jenna Ortega and Tommy Lee Jones are hands down the best parts about the movie, you can never really go wrong with Tommy Lee Jones who’s just such a fantastic actor to watch whenever he’s on screen. Jenna Ortega is one of the best young talent working today and she really gives a solid performance here despite working with a script that gives her character very little to do. The movie itself is competently made with some solid looking shots that do show the beauty of the sea. 

The first hour of Finestkind is a family drama which is basic yet not anything particularly bad, if anything it just suffers from being more of the same thing that we have seen several times before. If you have seen any given family drama in your life you already know what to expect. However the last half of the movie turns into a crime thriller that has absolutely no setup at all, you could honestly be forgiven if you thought Finestkind was two completely different scripts that somehow got meshed together into a Frankenstein’s monster of a mess.  

As I said there’s a good movie in here somewhere, there’s just not a whole lot going on to actually make it into one, Finestkind isn’t one of the worst movies of the year but it’s one of the most unremarkable and one of the most forgettable that you might think about for two minutes after watching. 

Finestkind is available on Paramount+ 

4/10 D+