THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE ★★½☆☆ D: André Øvredal (Trollhunter). S: Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox, Ophelia Lovibond, Michael McElhatton. Body horror starts promisingly, but resorts to cheap, obvious scares, descending to adequate haunted house flick. UNA ★★★☆☆ D: Benedict Andrews. S: Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed. Tough subject matter. Disturbing. Well acted. Tense. Not currently sold on the ending, and a bit too theatrical. BLEED FOR THIS ★★★☆☆ D: Ben Younger (Prime, Boiler Room). S: Miles Teller, Aaron Eckhart, Katey Sagal, Ciarán Hinds, Ted Levine. The boxing sequences are poorly choreographed, but the story of tenacity uplifts. Chemistry between players propels. THE WORTHY ★★☆☆☆ D: Ali F. Mostafa. S: Ali Suliman, Ruba Blal, Maisa Abd Elhadi. Sadistic substandard post-apocalypse. Wafer-thin characterisation - THE WALKING DEAD should've made this paucity obsolete. The surprise film was: SULLY ★★★★☆ Clint Eastwood ends his five film bad run. Chopped narrative really works. Tom Hanks brings dignified a-game. TONI ERDMANN ★★★★★ D: Maren Ade (Everyone Else). S: Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller, Michael Wittenborn, Thomas Loibl, Trystan Pütter, Hadewych Minis, Lucy Russell, Ingrid Bisu, Vlad Ivanov, Victoria Cocias. THE GODFATHER of comedies. Outdoes LE DÎNER DES CONS - more wide-ranging and more focused, plus a deeply emotional climax. LA LA LAND ★★★★★ D: Damien Chazelle (Whiplash, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench). S: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, John Legend, Rosemarie DeWitt. As if Alfonso Cuarón made a musical. Has its cake and eats it. Does the ultra rare: a film for cynics and the sentimental. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA ★★★★★ D: Kenneth Lonergan (Margaret, You Can Count On Me). S: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Gretchen Mol, Matthew Broderick. 3 for 3 masterworks from Lonergan. Drama for the ages. The juxtaposition of scenes wows, as does the dialogue and Affleck's acting. THE SECRET SCRIPTURE ★★☆☆☆ D: Jim Sheridan (Dream House, Brothers, In America, The Boxer, In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot). S: Vanessa Redgrave, Rooney Mara, Theo James, Eric Bana, Jack Reynor. Artless non-stop misery. Leaden dialogue. Pedestrian looking. Is no PHILOMENA. WÙLU ★★★★☆ D: Daouda Coulibaly. S: Quim Gutiérrez, Dembele Habib, Ndiaye Ismaël. What a directorial debut! A Malian SICARIO. Tense, political, while not forgetting to give the protagonist gravitas. There are only so many endings for a boxing movie. The best ones aren't actually about boxing. Will this be a genre stand out? It has been 11 long years since director Stephen Gaghan’s excellent SYRIANA. A MONSTER CALLS ★★★★☆ D: J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, The Orphanage). S: Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Lewis MacDougall, Liam Neeson. A creature feature where the emotional epiphanies are just as gripping as the VFX. Surprisingly sophisticated. THE LEVELLING ★★★½☆ D: Hope Dickson Leach. S: Ellie Kendrick, David Troughton, Jack Holden. A believable female-led GET CARTER without the violence. Brit cinema referencing Brit cinema. Topical too. FRANTZ ★★★½☆ D: François Ozon (The New Girlfriend, Young & Beautiful, In the House, Potiche, Le Refuge, Angel, Time to Leave, 5x2, Swimming Pool, 8 Women, Water Drops on Burning Rocks). S: Paula Beer, Pierre Niney, Marie Gruber, Ernst Stötzner, Johann Von Bülow, Anton Von Lucke. The narrative peeling and humanistic message win over. (Colour punctuating monochrome done better in PLEASANTVILLE.) THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MÄKI ★★★☆☆ D: Juho Kuosmanen. S: Jarkko Lahti, Oona Airola, Eero Milonoff. A boxing film not about boxing - wise move in a subgenre awash with cliché. Feels like a 60s movie. A UNITED KINGDOM ★★★½☆
D: Amma Asante (Belle, A Way of Life). S: David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike, Laura Carmichael, Jack Davenport, Tom Felton. Righteous anger fuelled. Dialogue hits gut. Actors romance each other and us. (Camerawork needed more vitality.) |
This website is written by Hemanth Kissoon.
Filmaluation is dedicated to arts culture, with a particular focus on film. I care about intelligence, quality and entertainment. Need some movie and TV show recommendations? See the drop down to the right of the Home tab. Enjoy. The vital ambitions of art and entertainment: - Perceptiveness - Illumination - The unexpected - Innovation Brains and soul are key; but adrenaline junkies do not fret, there is also much love for an experience that delivers a sucker-punch to the guts via stunningly delivered thrills. Noun, “filmaluation”: The evaluation of a film Verb, "to filmaluate”: To evaluate a film I am well aware how difficult it is to make a film, put on a stage play, create a television show, write a novel, let alone make something of note. (That appreciation doesn’t stop me from having high standards though.) This online magazine is edited by Hemanth Kissoon. Filmaluation is owned by Filmaluation Limited (Company number 8549302. Registered in England and Wales) Archives
May 2024
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