End Of The Week Shorts #96
A longer review may be required, but I have to say I'm impressed. Aquaman has its faults - it is rather cliched and uninspired. But, this is still the best product DC has put out in recent years. What this captures above all else is the impossible. Aquaman could not have been made 15 or even 10 years ago, and almost every frame oozes with this fact. Wan does a tremendous job in doing something rather inconceivable here; I'm reminded of Cameron's endeavour to make the impossible world film that is Avatar, and can't help but feel Wan's effort is more successful than Cameron's in a frontier, world building manner. Highly reminiscent of Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther, a modernised Arthurian legend, Aquaman's attempts in the narrative department are valiant - and I much appreciate the touches of melodrama. Its success here is limited, but, by DC standards, this is a revelation.
I had had a long day before going to see this, so I was tired - but I still put some blame on Glass for me almost falling asleep.
I knew this was going to subvert expectations of the superhero genre-film, but I could not anticipate just how hard Glass would push its subversion. I can easily see an argument for this aiming to frustrate and bore above aiming to do something new. There may be some value in a filmmaker antagonising their audience, but what substance emerges from Glass? I suppose there's some questioning around sanity and self-belief that is intriguing on a dry and abstract level. But, there is little that is affecting about Glass; lax characterisation, so-so writing, good performances, satisfactory direction. More could be said, but I will simply end with an... eh.
I stress the following: I did not watch this in full. I stress this so you don't feel the need to question my mental and physical health; I was exposed to enough to feel the sting, but I was not hit with an unbearable dosage of poisonously shoddy cinema.
Pixels needs applause; objectively, the must un-funny film ever constructed. Adam Sandler's cinema is like Baby Brent from Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs; when the thing gets old, it gets ugly; the more the thing matures, the more hideous it becomes. What is most surprising about Pixels, however, is the action and the constant sexual puns. Both are as jarring as they are childish. I wash my hands of this trash.
Kevin James, from my perspective, is that goofy yet popular guy in school who everyone thinks is just a great person, but that you can't help but want to spit on; from a distance, you profoundly dislike him without a real reason and without a care for getting to know him; you like that you dislike him, and that's how things will stay. Sorry, not sorry, but screw Kevin James. I refuse to justify this. Apologies for the cynicism.
About Zookeeper; mediocre, sentimental, contrived and childish. There is something to be said for its lunacy - it puts a smile on your face that you want to wipe off. But, this is more guilt, less pleasure in my books. Stick to podcasting Gale. You embarrass yourself.
Beyond all else, Blue Steel feels like a film struggling to reach a certain minute mark. Everything about the pacing and the plotting just feels bloated and stretched. This leaves the film open to many plot holes and silly moments. Why hit a guy with a car and then shoot him? Why does everyone constantly shoot one another in the chest and arms? Who invited Michael Meyers into a cop-thriller?
It is hard to see more in Blue Steel than just this. The direction, acting and characterisation are not terrible, but nonetheless all exude forgettability. And such is what Blue Steel is; rather forgettable.
Is it possible to have a camera stare at a story with less care?
Zero Dark Thirty is the epitome of procedural. All that occurs feels as though it has been directly transcribed by an uptight bystander who has to document all that they have seen. This documentary approach to narrative seems to be a mechanism of neutralising its many controversial and loaded elements; it also constructs a facade of verisimilitude. I'm slightly sceptical of how true this 'true story' is and what the intentions are in putting this story on the big screen (especially in the way that it has). There is no celebration of Bin Laden's capture (probably not necessary) and there is no real criticism or questioning. With some contrivance, this shows the event and the many struggles leading up to it objectively. Maybe the hope was that this would reveal much in and of itself. Alas, what do we learn about characters and the American governmental system? I'm not sure.
Far from perfect, but somewhat provocative, you might describe Velvet Buzzsaw as Ring meets The Square. We are taken into a cliched vision of the art world - an industry rife with emptiness, money, deception, sexuality and self-absorption. We are shown characters who create and facilitate creation via self-corruption. They are, one by one, picked off and destroyed by genuine art that was never meant to be discovered. A judge and punisher, this truthful, unintending art reveals the insipid and malevolent nature of its spectator's intentions. The final assertion; art should be like life; it should be constructed on sands that erode under the ebb and flow of waves like time that will always forget, will always obscure the past. Live and let yourself die; live well enough so you can die honourably. Such is Velvet Buzzsaw's assertion. It isn't articulated very well, but maybe there's some substance under it - maybe there isn't.
The cowboy stares at a frontier approaching his home after having forgotten that he is supposed to be in motion, that the wild west was supposed to be a movement into the unknown and the treacherous. The dark cloud that always rested in the depths of the unknown seems like a new predator on the boarder. The cowboy has forgotten. Did he ever know?
No Country For Old Men is too much and all at once. Simultaneously an exploration of the elemental and undying good, bad and outlaw moving betwixt the two as well as an investigation of fate, reason and determinism, this is a film that silently guffaws. Uncannily precise and revealing, this is a film that can be seen 20 times over and still need more views.
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