This July it’s going to be 10 years since I’ve this movie in the cinema for a very first time. And I still remember being blown away by its ideas, visuals, storytelling, actors… Ever since then, I’ve re-watched this movie about 5 times, which is rare to be honest, as I try to watch new movies, rather than going back to what I’ve already seen. On my last re-watch, just a couple of days ago, I was happy to see it still felt fresh, the visual effects were holding up great (and that’s not something that could be said for every movie, some might not even be 10 years old yet!) and the story is as thrilling as it was back then.

Inception is as high concept as high concept gets – the way Christopher Nolan tells this story, where it’s so complex, yet so entertaining that even if you get lost (which you shouldn’t), you will still find yourself fascinated. The movie is almost 2 and half hours long, but it never felt like it at all, not when I’ve seen it for the very first time, or just couple of days ago – and that’s another thing.

People are afraid of longer movies. Personally, movie runtime sometimes affects what I’m watching, as we all have days we are just not in the mood for a movie we have yet to see, that’s over 2, 2 and half hours long. But we (or at least I) forget that the runtime doesn’t really matter, if the movie is told well. There are plenty of movies that are the “golden” standard of 90/100 minutes, but given how the story is boring/bland/not funny etc., it feels like much more. And then you have movies like Inception, where 2 hours and 28 minutes just flies by and at the end you look at your watch and wonder, where did the time go…?

The biggest thing about this movie (for me) could be said about every single Nolan movie – he treats his audience with respect. He gives them just enough information to make out what’s happening, but also doesn’t go overboard, he always lets you have your own input/interpretation of a scene, or a element of the story.

The following will contain SPOILERS!

In Inception, it’s the much discussed ending – is he still dreaming? Or is he awake? Or was the entire film dream, where nothing we’ve seen is real? Was Mal right after all? I swear to God, sometimes it seems there are more Inception theories on the internet, than porn videos. Well, my two cents on this would be that the ending is reality, he’s not dreaming. Why? Well…

1. Throughout the movie, we never see his kids faces. Only at the very end, they finally turn around where we can see them clearly, so he’s no longer “remembering”, but actually living in the real moment.
2. I don’t think Nolan is the type of director, that would pull a stunt like that. Mainly the theories about how the entire movie is somehow “one big dream” where nothing you’ve just seen hasn’t actually happened, don’t make sense to me, as that would cheapen the movie. The way I explain the spinning top at the end? Extend the last shot by 5 seconds and the top falls down, but Nolan doesn’t like definitive answers, so he cuts just before that. I also wonder, if he might be a bit of a “troll” in the best possible way, where it just makes him laugh, every time he imagines people reacting to that ending, cutting to black.

And of course, on IMDb trivia section there are two more things to tell Leo’s character is not dreaming anymore – in a dream, Leo wears a wedding ring, in reality, there is no ring. We also have the answer Michael Caine was given by Nolan:

Sir Michael Caine’s quote:

In August 2018, during his speech at Film 4 Summer Screen at Somerset House, London, Caine stated: “When I got the script of Inception, I was a bit puzzled by it and I said to him (Christopher Nolan) ‘I don’t understand where the dream is’. I said, ‘When is it the dream, and when is it reality?’ He (Nolan) said, ‘Well, when you’re in the scene, it’s reality.’ So get that, if I’m in it, it’s reality. If I’m not in it, it’s a dream.”

But I will ask you a better question – does it matter that much? Not to me, as I believe I understand what happened, and that’s how Nolan meant for this movie to be enjoyed. This is yet another compliment to his intellect – he could’ve easily given us a “definitive” ending, but that wouldn’t spark the discussions, the passions around this and mainly it wouldn’t allow you and me, as viewers, to interpret it differently. Plus, with Nolan movies, it is more often the journey that matters more, than the destination and what a stunning journey this was.

Also, just so we don’t forget this tiny detail – this movie made Tom Hardy and Ken Watanabe into the stars they are today – sure, they both had some movies on their resume (mainly Ken in Japan had pretty successful carrier) but because of this movie, they broke out in Hollywood and (mainly) Hardy became a force of his own, where I’m looking forward to everything he does next.

Overall, Inception is a perfect example of a movie, that ages fantastically, treats its audience with respect by not overfeeding them unnecessary exposition, and lets everybody know, that just because you are “a big summer blockbuster” (and by every definition, Inception was just that) you don’t have to be dumb, with nice flashy colours on the screen that mean nothing. If you make your movie well, people will watch it, they will go and support it in the cinemas and they won’t complain it’s almost two and half hours long.

That’s all for this one! Did you see Inception? How did you like it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

As with plenty of other movies, I’ve heard so much (both good and bad) about this movie, ever since it came out on Netflix back in 2017. I’ve heard about the Cannes fiasco (article here), I’ve read plenty of different reviews, so I was composing myself before watching this movie, as it was in my Netflix queue for the longest time (I know, shame on me). And then, something else happened.

Yes, The Oscars 2020 happened, where Bong Joon Ho became the star of the evening, for his brilliant movie Parasite (2019) that collected the most important awards that night. That somehow made it even “harder” for me to watch this movie, as my expectations went through the roof, even though it doesn’t really make sense, as everything that’s happened that night had nothing to do with Okja.

Well, I’ve finally got around watching it the other night, and I was blown away. Because I have expected this movie to be well shot, with really interesting story, colourful characters and some message behind it all, but I didn’t expect how smart it will be.

This movie would’ve been so easily done in a way, where there are the good guys and the bad guys, where everybody who eats meat is bad, and everybody who doesn’t and is fighting against it is good. But I’ve (for the last time, I swear) underestimated Bong Joon Ho, as he is one clever fella. The thing that struck me with Okja, is how he made it feel like a something that could happen in our world.

The following will contain SPOILERS!

Let’s get over couple of examples of this good vs. bad, how this movie deals with traps where a lesser movie would’ve fallen into. The “big bad” company, respectively the people running it, are not some “we need to kill everything, because we hate animals” cartoon characters. They are strictly business people, where they just want to make money. The key scene here is at the very end, where Mija in a desperate attempt to save Okja, offers Tilda Swinton the golden pig she got from her granddad in the beginning of the movie. But instead of Tilda’s character laughing at her for trying to save that one super pig, she examines the golden one, and says, “Great, you can have that one, we are finished here”. Because they are not is the business of killing this one super pig, they want to make as much money as possible, so given the opportunity, of course she’ll take it. And sure, you can speculate whether this makes her less evil, after all the company is still killing bunch of super pigs, but the motivation behind it makes it more believable. Also, you do get into the conversation “Are people who sell guns bad people? After all, they KNOW that gun will eventually be used to kill someone?” where there is plenty of grey area and no one answer is easy.

Another example, from the “opposite” side, is the ALF people (Animal Liberation Front) where any lesser movie, would’ve made them as perfect as possible. This one almost takes shots at them, at the “group think” where “we’ve come so long for this, so the ends justify the means”, where some of the members think like that and are not that “good”. Or with that one member, who tries to have “the smallest footprint on the planet”, so he refuses to eat and is starving himself, therefore going to the extreme end of spectrum where you try to be helpful, but there are probably easier and more productive ways.

My main takeaway from this film is that it wasn’t trying to say “everybody who eats meat is bad and should feel bad”. I honestly believe the message this movie was trying to convey, was more about mass production of meat, how we should treat animals with decency and courtesy, to make us think about that and whether we want to tolerate that particular part of this industry, that unfortunately does exist.

I’ve seen plenty of movies to know Jake Gyllenhaal is a great actor, but I’ve not seen him like this in a long, long time, where he’s so fearless… He knows exactly what he must do, who the character is and why he needs to be so over the top, and he goes for it, with not hesitations. Tilda Swinton proved yet again, she’s criminally underrated actress (she should have more than one Oscar to her name) and one of the finest actresses of her generation. And Giancarlo Esposito in his small, but meaningful role was also great, but that’s nothing new, he’s always welcomed addition to anything.

With Okja, I’ve seen every movie Bong Joon Ho has made except one (Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000)) and I can now safely say, he’s one of my favourite directors of today. He always delivers, his movies have a certain style/mood, where you can go back to them and find something new almost every single time. I’d imagine, if I were to watch Okja again in a few months, I’d find even more things to appreciate. Can’t wait for that and for what he makes next, I’ll definitely be watching out for that.

That’s all for this one? Did you see Okja? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Let me start this review by answering the question from the title – no. Extraction is a decent action movie, where the one unbroken shot elevates it above others, so it doesn’t blend in with your typical “one man against city/army/bunch of camels” type of action movies. I just wish they had spent an equal amount of time on the script as they had on that unbroken shot.

I can’t help but feel that this movie is trying so hard to be “the next” John Wick or The Raid both of which are great action movies, full of stunts, focusing on hand combat, action pieces with long takes, where the story takes a back seat and you are there to enjoy the ride. And both of these movies had a successful sequels, which established and flashed-out their worlds even more (the reason I’m mentioning this is the obvious sequel bait ending, and it looks like it worked. Heads up, the article contains spoilers for this movie).

But where those two have succeeded and Extraction didn’t, is they weren’t relying on JUST one action piece, or one great sequence. Both John Wick and The Raid have several things that make them great, they are not remembered for “one really cool scene”. Whereas this movie will be remembered for that one, I don’t mind admitting, pretty kick ass scene. According to the IMDb trivia, it lasts 11 minutes and 30 seconds and trust me, you can feel it, in the best possible way as that’s THE part of the movie that tries to convince you, “hey, I am different, you better pay attention!” But everything around that is just… ok…?

Chris Hemsworth is still as buffed as he is charismatic, so he carries this movie on his massive shoulders with no issues, but I swear they wrote his character by opening the “Cliches and Whatnot, 101 Screenwriting Tips for YOU” book and took way too much from it, as he embodies almost every single cliche imaginable. Don’t believe me? Let me checklist it for you:

• Ex-soldier of kind? ✔
• Has a dead kid? ✔
• Is the only one crazy enough for this job? ✔
• Using pills for different injuries? ✔
• Doesn’t care about whether he lives or dies as he’s got nothing to live for? ✔
• Doesn’t blink when gun is pointed and shot into his face? ✔
• Grows attached to the person he’s hired to protect? ✔

And I could probably come up with a few more, but I think you get what I am trying to say. Extraction is a tale of three parts – the beginning left me hopeful, the single-take action sequence left me pumped up and wanting/expecting more, and everything else after that left me bored.

The next paragraph or two will contain SPOILERS!

What I did appreciate (except the single-take action sequence already mentioned) is that this movie wasn’t shy from getting dirty, where the kills are convincing and fights are usually not edited to pieces, so for the most of the movie you actually know where everything/everyone is, so that was a nice surprise. Did it have to be almost 2 hours? No. Would I rate it slightly higher, if the movie had the balls to give Chris “hero death” and not this open ended, sequel biting thing that happened? Yes.

And that’s the main difference between this movie and the other two great ones mentioned before – those were not planned as sequels, they stand on their own, and they had bit more meat on the bones, and that always helps, even if your movie is branded as “mindless entertainment”. More meat is nice, it gives the viewer something more to chew on, rather than the unpleasant experience of biting into a bone really quickly, realising the meal is not as appealing as it looks like.

That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

This review will contain SPOILERS!

Wow. This movie wasn’t really on my radar, until my girlfriend, who let’s say, doesn’t love movies as much as me (if she sees 10 movies/year, she’d be more than happy with that) brought it up with me, that she’s seen a trailer for this and wants to watch it with me. The moment it was released on Mubi, we have done just that.

This movie is first and foremost visually stunning achievement – my hat goes off to the cinematographer Sergio Armstrong, as I honestly hope this will put him into “big league” and he will be able to do a movie or two for “masses”, he deserves to be known and have his work watched by many.

The other thing I need to mention right of the bat is the storytelling. I was amazed this was done by the same guy who’s done Jackie (which I thought was a decent film, with some strange music choices), Pablo Larraín – I don’t think there is a better compliment to give out, than this movie is reminding me of a Shakespearean tragedy, but tailored to today, with bit of dancing involved.

Ema is definitely a movie that you either “give into” and let it guide you to a story, where all main characters have a flaw or two, where they might not “behave” in the way you would expect them to, or you don’t “give in” and won’t enjoy it. It didn’t take me long time to “give in”, as I feel like the story is something that if you think about it just for a bit, really easy to relate to – family, relationships, the way somebody tries to do/be better, but not having the “tools”, or the will to do it, they fail, almost repeatedly.

In Ema’s case, she copes with everything that’s happening to and around her, by dancing her soul off. Because only in that, she can find peace, balance, escape from the harsh reality. Dancing is the only thing, that she feels she can control in her entire life. And if you think about it like that, your life would drive you crazy too and that makes her choices understandable, even though I don’t agree with them. To me, this is the brilliance of this script/direction – making the audience not even so much as relate, but understand the character – because we don’t have to relate to people, in order to understand them. At least I don’t.

When I mentioned “the modern day Shakespearean tragedy” – this entire movie felt like something that could’ve easily been a play, the way all characters come together at the end (in bit of an unexpected way, at least for me) and the unsettling ending, where “show, don’t tell” rule is used to a perfection, makes me say this is a tragedy, as we can presume (hoping we are wrong) that Ema is not filling up the canister for anything good… or maybe she is, maybe, she has changed and having the kid did change her. I really liked the ending, is what I’m trying to say.

I’m really hoping this movie won’t get lost, as it should be seen and celebrated by the masses, as this is the perfect example of an art movie, that’s still accessible – yes, it’s unconventional movie, no question about that, but if you give it a chance, you will discover it has a few things to say, and makes you relate to some characters you might not relate to in a real life scenario.

That’s all for this one? Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke