Review: At Eternity's Gate

The story of Vincent Van Gogh has been heavily documented for many years, discussed about in many circles and portrayed in several films over the years.

I have seen are Lust For Life where Kirk Douglas played Van Gogh and I felt this was very entertaining drama. The only other one I've seen was Loving Vincent which came out in 2017, which was impressive piece of work. Mainly due to the fact that it became the first ever film to be done completely in oil paint. The sheer achievement of every frame being oil painted was a joy to watch on screen and I urge everyone to check that one out.

In regards to this latest portrayal, I rather enjoyed this and appreciated the purposeful style and look of it. Early on, I could feel that I was watching the character of Van Gogh of instead of Defoe the actor, which put me at ease. After that, I could really feel the struggles that everyone is aware of that Van Gogh experienced. The longer the film went on, the stronger my engagement was and I think it was the strongest I've had in any Van Gogh film.

I felt Willem Defoe gave us a very convincing performance and I could totally see why he was recognised for his efforts with his Oscar nomination.
His support with Oscar Isaac's character in particular was great to see develop on screen as well and could be an aspect that may go under the radar with other reviews.

I was impressed by the cinematography at certain times. The camera gave us moments that makes you feel like what Van Gogh sees and puts to canvas, which I felt was very clever and certainly made me feel what it was like in Van Gogh's shoes and how he was treated by the people around him.

I loved the locations used for this and I believe the majority of them were the actual ones that Van Gogh himself was at during the points in his life that the film was showing.

From the same director as the terrific The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, it might not have the complete package of said film, but this is still a pretty good piece of work that gave us a strong portrayal of Van Gogh and gave me the clearest understanding of how misunderstood he was.

I think director Julian Schnabel and his team did a great job of capturing the spirit of the character and the story that for me gave us a high level of authenticity.

I think the only reason for me preventing this from giving an exceptional rating, was probably my awareness of the story that I already had of the story. Maybe if some aspects were a bit more experimental, that might have had more striking and memorable imagery could have swayed me to a higher mark.

But I still feel this was very well made and I think this is a very accessible film that mainstream audiences can get something out of.

It's really weird that this has had a very small release in the UK and America, despite its Oscar recognition and the story involving one of the most famous painters with a story that many people would be interested by. But I would recommend you check this out. But you may have to go out of your way to look for it.

Rating: 7/10

Review: The White Crow

I know some generations will be aware of the Rudolf Nureyev, but I am definitely not one of them.

So my unawareness of the story and the fact that Ralph Fiennes was directing was enough for me to check this out.

Most of the film I felt had solid development within its story and characters. The authenticity of the period setting and the dancing was particularly noticeable and felt like the most impressive aspect.

As the build-up to the final act approached, I did notice the quality of acting had somewhat gone down a bit. Then when we got to the scene that is the centrepiece of the story that I felt was executed rather over-dramatic and almost felt like something that I would normally see in a middle-of-the-road soap opera.

But by the end of it, I had certainly experienced enough content in there to understand the importance of this real-life story.

I really liked that they used actual dancers for even the main roles. So props to lead actor Oleg Ivenko for his effort in both his physical and acting aspects. But if I had to compare it with your regular leading actors, it was not up to their high-quality. However, he and his supports certainly made up for it in the dancing sequences which really made me appreciate an art-form that I have never really had a liking for.
The way the camera just backs off and lets us see the physical efforts required to make it look effortless and graceful was really quite a sight.
It also made me appreciate the discipline required to something that can look painful to outsiders.

Another big strength that I mentioned was the late 50's-early 60's period setting. It looked very authentic and even the camera filter at times made it look like archive footage.

Ivenko's on-screen development with Ralph Fiennes' and Adele Exarchopoulos' characters felt particularly engaging and certainly kept my interest when we didn't have ballet sequences.

But I think the underwhelming final act had me feeling that this was a perfectly fine film, but nothing more than that. The execution of the dancing was great to watch and the even the sound design of the floorboards really enhanced the effort everyone was putting into those moments.
Apart from that, I think every other department did everything to a satisfactory level and made a solid viewing experience.
I wouldn't call this a must watch. But if you feel intrigued by this true story and want to no more about it, then watching won't make you feel disappointed.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Everybody Knows

A new Asghar Farhadi feature always creates high expectations in certain circles. His films may never be flashy. But they always end up being quite impactful and gives us many strong characters with high-quality development.

While this latest project might not be as exceptional as almost all of his previous work, this mystery drama is an entertaining feature with solid performances from a fairly large cast.

Most definitely carrying the film is Penelope Cruz who gives a brilliant leading performance. The sadness and determination she portrays on screen elevates everything else around her. It is probably her best performance since the great Volver back in 2006.
Javier Bardem also shine nicely, particularly towards the end. It might not be up there with the likes of No Country For Old Men, The Sea Inside or Skyfall, but his contribution was essential.
In fact, I think the entire cast all contributed nicely and never made it feel like a two-actor show.

The only major negative was most definitely the duration. There were plenty of scenes that could have been cut and therefore would have been made the pacing feel about more smooth and seamless. But as that's not usually Farhadi's style, then I guess it's a negative from a personal point of view.

While it could well be Farhadi's weakest piece since his debut, it's a solid mystery drama that is pretty entertaining with a very strong leading performance.
Cruz is definitely worth your time, the Spanish architecture and landscape is great to look at and as we don't see many mystery films these days, I would happily recommended it and I feel many will not see it as a disappointment.

Rating: 7/10

Review: The Mule

If there's someone you can rely on for a good solid piece of entertainment, then Clint Eastwood is your director.

His style is very traditional and while end product is extremely conventional and traditional, it still brings solid results.

While I feel his last great film was Gran Torino in 2008, Eastwood has still directed some good stuff including Invictus, American Sniper (fake baby aside) and Sully. Now, he is still making films despite approaching his 90th birthday.

The marketing certainly a vibe of being a spiritual follow-up to Gran Torino, and those feelings remain once I saw the film.

It does everything you expect some Eastwood. The first act clearly shows what we're getting ourselves into and the predicament our various characters are in.
For the rest of the film, I just felt in safe hands having a very pleasant despite it never challenging me or dramatically moving me emotionally. Sometimes you just want something to cleanse the palate per say.

Clint Eastwood did a good job in this. He gives us a character that might not be as crude or racist as his in Gran Torino, we still get someone that is out of time with modern customs and pleasantries. However, I found him engaging and a story arch that was fun to follow.
I enjoyed his chemistry with Dianne West especially towards the end as well as Alison Eastwood.
There were a few miscasts in my opinion. Outside of one nice interaction scene with Clint, I did not feel the need for Bradley Cooper to be cast. His characters development felt very ordinary and never went beyond the basics of explaining to the audiences his characters drive.
I would say exactly the same for Laurence Fishburne and Michael Pena.

Despite not having any real negatives, it's lack of strong or exceptional aspects in the end just made this another solid piece of work. The story is perfectly engaging as our the characters involved, it moves along nicely, it gets tense when it needs to and has enough memorable moments for it to be worth watching again.

I can see plenty of people enjoying this. Eastwood has always had a style that plays to the masses and this is another welcomed addition to his already large back catalogue.

Rating: 7/10

Review: The Front Runner

The type of story, the cast involved and the timing of its release all screamed potential Oscar contender.

But after seeing it, I was rather under-whelmed.

Don't worry, it's not a bad film. The whole thing moves along nicely, there is a lot of intrigue at the start as well as some very good character introductions. Every bit of story and character development is executed well. But the pay-off had no strong or even memorable finale that warranted the type of hype and marketing it was given.

Hug Jackman did what Hugh Jackman does. He had a solid screen presence and gave us a character we could invest our time with. I felt his on-screen relationship with Vera Farmiga was believable and they both carried the film well to make it passable viewing.
Sadly, this film also gave us another wasted casting of J.K. Simmons who offered nothing. He is one of my favourite actors and has given us some top performances in the past such as in Whiplash or the Spider-Man trilogy. But this one just reminded me of his contribution to the highly disappointing the The Snowman.

In the end, it's a perfectly fine but few memorable moments to warrant a second viewing. For a film to be released in the middle of the hot-bed of when the Oscar contenders usually get released, and with a star and a promising story, you would expect a lot from this.

Instead, you get something that while has nothing bad about it, just ends up being rather ordinary. It goes through the motions you might expect it to, it ends up in a pretty conventional way and the whole film is passable at best.

The strongest reviews will be from people who have never seen a political scandal related film in their life and think of this as something totally new to them.

This is a real shame, and I'm afraid this will easily get forgotten

Rating: 7/10

Review: One Cut Of The Dead

It's been quite a journey for me to finally see this. I initially had a ticket to see it at the Leeds Film Festival last November. But due to transport problems, I was unable to see it. Then unbeknowst to me, a second screening was created at the last minute due to the raving reviews it got from the first one.
I only found out on the day of the screening and could not get a ticket in time.

So I had to wait until it's home release, and was clearly excited to see this due to the reviews it was getting based on its hilariousness and originality.

Now that I've seen it, I certainly echo the statements from the reviews. It starts off as something that has a concept that sounds great on paper and the end product looks pretty entertaining and funny at times.

Then it suddenly changes your perspective of the story and adds an element that certainly took me a while to work out what this film was trying to be.
Once everything fell into place, it makes you re-evaluate everything you have just seen and I thought it was one of the most unique and original concepts I have ever seen put to film.

What gave it that extra special quality is that the crazier it got with its concept, the funnier it got and the more endearing the characters became.

I have to give huge props to Shininchiro Ueda for creating this. His frenetic and rompy direction and clever and feel-good screenplay is the biggest reason for it becoming the success that it has become.

Also, there were some top performances by Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya and Hiroshi Ichihara in particular.

I had a lot of fun when watching this. The strength of the concept and execution of it is what is making this one of the best films of the decade. While the performances weren't award-winning, they certainly enhanced the viewing experienced and embraced the tone and vibe of the film really well.

Everyone that contributed to this film should be forever praised as they have created a rare breed. In an age where you feel every type of story has been made, this one will certainly have caught off-guard on multiple occasions. You'll have no idea where this film is going.

This would be such an ideal film to watch with a group of friends as that group interaction will most definitely elevate your enjoyment of this brilliantly bonkers story. I would recommended that no matter how strange you feel the film is getting and no matter how lost you feel, trust me, it will all make sense in the end.

Rating: 8/10

Review: How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

The How To Train Your Dragon franchise has surprised me no end. I think anything of the first installment during its build-up in 2010. But the ridiculously high ratings it was getting from both critics and audiences had me quite startled.
Then after seeing it, I was now joining them in their praise.

That carried on into the sequel which I felt to be slightly better then its predecessor, and we now had two of the best animated films of the decade.

So with part three being billed as a conclusion, many many people were hoping and expecting the perfect send-off.

Well for a start, it was great seeing the world of Burk and its characters and surroundings once again as we haven't seen them in 5 years.
The flight sequences are still exciting as the camera movement perfectly the portrays the experience and honestly makes you feel like you're right there.
But as the film went on, I was amazed at how much I was losing interest.
The animation is still as strong as ever, some aspects of the story was working nicely. But the overall product wasn't. Most of it just felt very generic and ordinary, especially the villain. The antagonist just felt every other one I've seen and that just lost all of its potential high stakes.
There was a romantic sub-plot that was keeping me going as well as the development of our two main characters.
Thankfully, we had a send-off that will make every fan of this franchise well up and even bawl their eyes out. It was such an emotional ending and it instantly made me forget everything I had just seen and managed to give itself a fitting finale.

But as much as I loved the emotional send-off, the film overall was sadly rather underwhelming for me.

The story is perfectly fine in its construction and execution. But it felt as if it was treading on familiar ground, re-hashing themes from its previous two and the villain was extremely forgettable. All of that just did not had me investing or caring much for the stakes. However, it was worth it up to a point for that ending that I will never forget.

Despite all that, I am grateful for these films as I still remember not expecting much from the first one and totally blown away by it as well as its sequel. One of Dreamworks most critically successful film series is now done and I hope they can re-create the magic that can at least match them as well as other successes of theirs, like the first two Shrek films.

Rating: 7/10

Review: Glass

This unexpected trilogy has had quite the journey from a director in M. Night Shyamalan who is having quite the renaissance.

2002 is where it began with the release of Unbreakable, a superhero film that over time has become quite a highly regarded film and not just within its genre. Looking back at it, it's popularity continues to grow to an all-time high, and it was clearly ahead of its time.
But as Shyamalan's stature and reputation slowly freefalled with the releases of devisive The Village, the disappointing The Lady In The Water, the trashy and yet guilty pleasure favourite of The Happening, the pretty bad The Last Airbender and the massively unremarkable After Earth, people had labelled Shyamalan as a hasbin and someone who has massively lost his touch.

But after the release of low budget horror The Visit, Shyamalan gave us hope that going back to a grounded story with a basic budget may be a good call in seeing going back to his roots.

Then came the release of Split just over a couple of years ago. It was getting strong reviews, but we never released how important this film would be to an underrated favourite until the very final scene. With Split not only being a very good film, it ended up being a surprise sequel to Unbreakable.
The huge success of this has now rightfully given us a final installment where all of our major characters collide.

It starts off well, gives us some nice reminders from Unbreakable and sets us up nicely for seeing all three of our major characters collide.
Once that happens, sparks of terrific film-making start to happen. That is mainly thanks to James McAvoy who manages to enhance his efforts in Split with a mesmorising display of variety and making so seamless and most importantly, believable.
Then as the twists and turns start to happen we get a pretty strong finale and a satisfying conclusion that never forgot its roots and utilised well in concluding the story.

Unlike the general consensus of the critics, the fans seem to be giving Shyamalan the deserved love to this finale of what is probably one of the strongest trilogies in quite some time. I say quite some time, because trilogies that feel like trilogies don't get made in this age of franchises, spin-offs and prequels etc. The only exceptions look to be The Dark Knight, Planet Of The Apes and How To Train Your Dragon.

The action was thrilling, the tension mounted beautifully, James McAvoy continues to show how much he loves playing this character. Playing a character with multiple personalities must be an actors dream, and McAvoy capitalises on this chance beautifully with what could be better then his original outing in Split. Samuel L. Jackson made me forget how good he was in Unbreakable and slipped back into his character shoes with ease. As for Bruce Willis, it's a rarity to find a memorable Willis performance in the last 10 years and I can now add this.
You can feel his dedication to the material he was given to him, and I was so happy to see Willis contribute to the cause with such energy and positivity.

I really enjoyed this and I cannot wait to watch this again and make a marathon of this trilogy. It's certainly been a while since I have been excited for another Shyamalan project.

Rating: 8/10

Review: Vice

The last of the Best Picture nominees that I get to see, and it's another Adam McKay biographical comedy drama involving a major American 21st century event.

A few years ago we had The Big Short, which I liked but also got a bit lost along the way due to the complexity of the topic they were covering. So much so, that they even simplified it in a comedic way that they openly admitted that the American housing crisis is confusing to anyone.

With this latest project, I had similar feelings afterwards. It already gave itself a steep hill to climb admitting in an opening prologue that the true event depicted are not clear as to whether they actually happened due to insufficient evidence. So despite admitting that in a comedic way, that for me already had it fighting a losing battle.
As the film began, it started off well as they executed the origins of the central character Dick Cheney rather well and had me excited as to what was in store. The corruption unfolding was interesting to see and the development of Cheney into the person we all know was blossoming nicely.

But it felt it was towards the end of the second act was then this was starting to lose me. It started to get too satirical and too obscure for its own good. Then with the ending never really having their memorable send-off, it left me somewhat puzzled.

Despite the problems I had with it, this remained to be a solid watch, thanks mainly to the strong performances by Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Steve Carell. It was an intriguing story with enough drama and comedy in there that I felt worked.

But I still felt a lot was missing. Admitting at the start they don't quite know the full and true story, that alone gave itself a steep hill to climb. I don't think I'll get quite fully get McKay's complex political comedy dramas.
I know there's good stuff in there. But the whole thing just isn't quite winning me over. I just feel the complexity of the topics he has picked just always has me falling behind in terms of investment in the story. I still prefer his more accessible films such as Anchorman, Talladega Nights and Step Brothers. But I'm still kind of up for another film similar to The Big Short and Vice to see if any of them will work for me.

Rating: 7/10