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huldahvonn
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Napoleon (2023)
Cliffs notes but make it pretty
Apparently Hollywood thinks the world is sick of the traditional three act, 1.5-2 hour movie and every period drama must be a 2.5hrs+ epic with absolutely no traditional storytelling structure. Movie makers are no longer trying to tell stories, they're trying to take you "on a journey". If that is your schtick, you're going to absolutely love this film. But for someone like me, who appreciates a more focused narrative, this movie feels like someone read the Cliffs notes of Napoleon's biography, made a scene from each note and then called it a day. It just didn't feel coherent; the narrative jumps from one place and year to another and introduces far too many characters, all of which probably played a vital role in history, but are not given nearly enough screen time to impact the story of the movie or make a memorable impression on the viewer. I had great difficulty in remembering which character was which, if I was supposed to have seen a character before or not and what role they played in the story.
I will say that the costumes and the sets look amazing. I'm no fashion historian so I won't speak to their actual accuracy but at least everybody looked period accurate to the average viewer and the set pieces looked expensive, lush and elaborative. The VFX were pretty good, I enjoyed the cinematography and the acting was mostly good (although I will say I find Phoenix to be a bit of a one trick pony when it comes to his style of acting).
But the score... I can't get past it. Why, oh why, would they use the very well known score of Joe Wright's Pride and prejudice (2005) as background music? And not just any old song, the very theme song that so many of us know and love, the opening song of the movie. It completely took me out of the scenes, as there were at least a couple of them where the familiar tune was prominently featured. It seems Sir Ridley Scott thought he needed a lite motive for the bizarre couple, i.e. Napoleon and Josephine, and just thought he'd just use this one since it already exists. My god, if using an original score is not in the budget, just use some open domain music from the time period. Imagine watching the new Hunger games film and then notice the Harry Potter theme song playing in the background.
Anyways, to conclude; This is a very picturesque, pretty sort of movie but it is simultaneously too long and too short. It was too long to keep the average viewer invested since there is no real plot line, no endearing characters, no mystery or enigma to solve, no character growth, no central theme or point. It was too short to properly convey about 20 years worth of history and did not do justice to the incredibly complex character that was Napoleon and, indeed, his wife Josephine. I would say I'd look forward to watching the 4 hour directors cut that they plan to publish on Apple's streaming service but my god, I cannot endure 4 more hours of this.
Ooku: The Inner Chambers (2023)
Not your average anime
This is an interesting take on alternative history. I liked it all in all but if you're used to watching explosive (mostly shonen) anime series such as myself (the likes of AoT, Demon Slayer, Death Note etc.) please take into consideration that this series is as similar to those as The Dead Poet's Society is to Mission Impossible. It's just a completely different genre of anime with a much greater emphasis on very subtle character driven plotlines and grounded philosophical themes than your run of the mill shonen anime. This series does not rely on the power of friendship/love tropes you find in Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! This does not have the bombastic action scenes of Attack on Titan, the witty humour of Demon Slayer or the thrilling, clever plot line of Death Note. This series does however have its own mysterious charm. It asks questions such as "What would happen if women had to replace men in most matters of business and politics?" and "Is a person either good or evil or can they be a little bit of both?". It explores humanity, human emotions and the reasons for why we do the things we do and why we are the way we are. Most of the characters have both redeemable and reprehensible character traits; there is no good side and bad side, it's all a question of survival and making the best of the hand you're dealt.
The animation was mostly good, although there were a few scenes scattered in between where you could clearly see they switched from traditional hand animation to CGI, but nothing too jarring. I watched it with the English dub and I think they did a pretty good job, although the dialog was a little bit coerced in some scenes and a lot of very poorly disguised exposition forced into it (which, to be honest, I don't know is the fault of the English translators or if the script was just written that way originally). For example, in one of the scenes a boy talking to his mother says something along the lines of "You'll leave my little brother Niko behind." No child speaks to their mother about their sibling like that; they both know Niko is his younger brother, there's no need to elaborate on that, it just sounds very exposition-y, if you ask me. Anyways, I digress.
I would recommend people give this series a chance, at least the first couple of episodes, bearing in mind that this is neither and action- nor an adventure series but a somber, even melancholy exploration of human nature. If you enjoyed Violet Evergarden I think you might definitely like this one.
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
A fresh take on a serious topic
I loved it. It really makes me sad to see people deem it boring or, worse, inappropriate. Yes WWII was one of humanity's worst moments. But it's so important that we allow ourselves to look at even the most dire situation through the eyes of humor, if it's done tastefully. Jojo rabbit does just that. There are so many tragic, serious movies that explore almost every aspect of WWII. I thought this was a very fresh take on a (mostly neglected) part of history. The story of how the Nazi party brainwashed their youth. But it's more than just a WWII story. It's a story about how everybody is corruptible, even the gentlest of souls, but also that no one is beyond redemption. That good people can be found I bad situations. It's a coming of age film about friendship, love, loss, about making your own decisions and about the absurdity and surrealism of growing up in the midst of a war. A movie about overcoming mental and physical challenges (neatly metaphored with shoe lace tying). I loved it. I loved the actors. I loved Waititi's interpretation of what young Germans boy's ideas about Hitler might have been during the war. I thought Alfie Allen smashed his minor role. Scarlet was wonderful, as always. It's a good, funny, sincere and genuine movie.
Burlesque (2010)
Ugh. Uggghh. I don't like it.
Ugh I really didn't like it. There are some positives. The dance routines are pretty cool, the dancers do a good job. The costumes and make up are nice. So the costume and make up designers get a thumbs up from me along with the choreographer. Besides that, oh boy. The script is pretty meh, the story is really predictable. Like really predictable. In fact it's kind of just Coyote Ugly except worse. I didn't like the main character Ali at all. She's probably the least amiable main character I've seen since Psycho. She's just obnoxious, rude and mean. I know she's supposed to come off as this strong young independent woman and I love that type of characters. But come on. This is a film about a woman whose only aspirations is to dance provocatively. I have absolutely nothing against doing that. But the film makes it look like she's striving for the Nobel peace price or something.
Jack, the main male love interest, absolutely deserves her. Are we supposed to feel so sorry for him for being in a long distance relationship with a girl who values her carrier that we deem it okay for him to cheat on her? Don't get me wrong. His girlfriend is conveniently horrible. But still. And the stuff he says just in general. The "want a cookie?" line (delivered by Jack standing naked next to Ali with a box of cookies to hide... him) made me dry heave profusely. The "You're definitely not gay" post-coital sentence from Ali produced a similar reaction. Like... what is this film? Who is writing these scenes and those dialogues?
Oh and I hate the sound mixing. Why do everybody sound like they're singing in a studio all the time? Even when singing on stage without a microphone? Like the scene where Nikki turns the sound system off whilst Ali is singing and they just freeze, but then Ali steps up and sings the vocals herself. She's supposed to be singing completely unsupported, not even a mic, but she sounds positive autotuned. It just takes you out of the film. It's rather ironic when Ali is this great rebel fighting for the girls to sing themselves instead of miming.
I'm sorry, I've gone on a complete rant. It's just such an overrated film. Bottom point being, just watch Coyote Ugly.
Astrópía (2007)
I love it
The most underrated Icelandic film. A completely neglected genre of comedy action adventure film. It's Legally blond meets Shawshank redemption with a touch of very refreshing imagination-to-reality style of fantasy role playing sequences. Don't let the negative reviews fool you. The film is perfectly fine for what it is. It's a light hearted comedy they doesn't take itself too seriously.
Kokuriko-zaka kara (2011)
The weirdest one of them all
Okay. This is a weird one. Yes. I said it. Out of all the fantastical, over the top, fairytale-like magical Ghibli movies - this one, the one that doesn't have a single supernatural element to it, is by far the weirdest. What a bizarre plot line for a film. I didn't hate it. I really didn't love it. The movie can be summarized pretty much by:
"Girl likes boy likes girl. They're not related. Now they're siblings. And now they're not. Oh and they didn't tear down the house either."
I keep imagining how they pitched the script. What description of it they gave so someone said "that's a fantastic idea for a feature length animated film!". Pretty much nothing happens. I feel like I might be missing out, not being able to read between the lines from my lack of a Japanese heritage. Maybe it's one of those great stories that lies in "the untold". I don't know. From my point of view this would have made a nice Ghibli short film. I can appreciate a nice mellow film. Still, I'd really appreciate an interesting event or two. And those 30ish minutes where you're lead to believe that they're siblings, you just feel really icky and don't really now what to hope for. Well, except maybe for them not to be siblings. But then, what was the point? You're just to where you started at the beginning of the movie. Yay?
Gedo senki (2006)
A beautiful mess
Okay I'm going to try to keep a positive attitude. So I'll start with the good things. The artistry of film itself, as in the animation, the score, the acting etc., is wonderful. I really like the aesthetic. The strangely satisfying mixture Byzantine, Greek, Roman and Egyptian architecture and design. No complaints there.
As for the not so stellar bits. Earthsea is a mythical land from a book series of the same name. You can really feel the movie suffers from it. I've never read the books but I think it's safe to say that they're trying to condense a multilayered story that took decades to write and publish into a 2 hour film script. All the characters seem really unmotivated to take whatever actions they do take. I don't know their backstory, I don't know what drives them. It's all just hand waved away, at most one sentence of really forced exposition. Yet nothing happens for the first hour and a half. I can only imagine it's because they were so busy building the world of Earthsea that they forgot to build up the plot of the story. Multiple elements of the story are never fully explained, like why they bothered introducing the drug Hazia that never makes another appearance after precious screen time I wasted in explaining its affects on people. Or if Therru's facial scar is of any importance like Sparrowhawk vaguely implies at one time. Or the nature Tenar's and Sparrowhawk's relationship. Or wh on earth the dragon just showed up in the end. Or why some people have something called a "true name". Or why Arren kills his father in the beginning of the movie. I have no idea what some of the words meant when Sparrowhawk and Cob are talking about some (seemingly important) events in their past. Like. What happened? I'm so lost. Maybe if you read the books, you'd get all the references but if not. Well. You're in for a long, very confusing movie with an extremely vague plot and characters you just don't care about because you don't know them at all.
Stardust (2007)
Lovely family feature
I love it. I loved it when I saw it 13 years ago as a teenager and I love it today still. I like the actors. I like the costumes. I like the story. I like the fact that this is a fantasy film and it doesn't a) suck b) have horrible looking over the top CGI. It looks good. The locations are gorgeous. If you've ever wondered what Iceland looks like when not used to depict the moon or some dystopian future, look no further. I like that one of the leading characters is a gay person, still in the closet, and then finds out that his seemingly overly macho friends knew all along and it was never a problem for their part. It's just a very nice, feel good film that delivers a lot of important messages to kids (and a lot of grown ups) without sounding preachy.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Beautiful, tedious and empty.
I'm still not half way through the movie but my mind is pretty much made up. I think the cinematography is wonderful, I like the costumes, the acting. I actually like a lot of things. The only thing completely misses the mark for me is the script. It falls victim to the same thing that so many other potentially good stories do; the whole central conflict is dependent on people acting completely unreasonable. The whole plot would just crumble if people actually behaved and talked like people do or did back in the early 20th century. I'm also not sure how I feel about the score. It's almost as if it's overcompensating for the lack of anything interesting happening. Suspenseful music often keeps you on the edge of your seat for the entire scene and you expect something awful or grand or surprising to happen. And then nothing ever happens. You begin feeling betrayed by it. Like it never delivers on its promise of action or drama. Then the movie just seems to lull on forever.