I don’t even know where to start with this movie. You can tell ever since around 2014, Christopher Nolan really decided to go all out and experiment with… well, everything. His movies were always high-concept, but each new one tops the previous one, and Tenet is his current peak. It’s as conceptual as it gets, as you either are on board with not understanding plenty of things about this movie and having to re-watch it a few times, or not. I am still in the first camp, where I admire what he’s doing, even though I would appreciate understanding some of it… It also makes me wonder what his next film will be like.

It’s really hard to rate this movie, or even meaningfully talk about it, as I am sure I have missed so much, or that plenty of things will be much clearer next time I watch it. I do understand where people, who really don’t like this movie, are coming from, as it’s definitely a challenging film, that not only demands your full attention, but it also needs you to re-watch it a few times before everything (hopefully?) falls into place properly. And this is what I admire about Nolan, he knows he can shoot movies. He knows his strengths. He could be making perfectly understandable, great movies, that wouldn’t challenge you or force you to spend the next 2 hours of your life on google/youtube watching/reading everything about it, trying to piece everything together, but it’s almost like he’d ask himself: “but what is the point?” He’s making everything harder for the audience, but what plenty of people are missing is the fact, that he’s also making it harder for himself.

I honestly don’t think he’s being snobby about his films, or that he would want to “eliminate” some of his fans/audience. To me, he strikes me like that kind of guy, who can’t stay put. He needs a challenge, he needs to learn new things on day-to-day basis. But since he already operates on much higher frequency than most of us, his challenges are not the same ones as ours would be. He wants to challenge our norms, how movies are made, told, he loves to play around with time (think about it, more often than not his movies are all about time being relative and how that affects the story) and since he’s already mastered the art of making movies, he wants to improve upon it.

For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed Tenet, even though I am not sure… no, I am sure that I didn’t get everything. I really enjoyed the action sequences, especially the highway chase scene and the ending. I really liked how John David Washington is handling himself in this movie and proving to everyone he’s not just Denzel‘s son, but he is a great actor in his own right, who isn’t afraid to do some action too. I loved Elizabeth Debicki‘s performance and how they didn’t try to make her look smaller. What I mean by that – she’s a really tall woman, and usually, if your male actors are not as tall, plenty of movies employ bunch of tricks (shooting at different distance, angles, or the tall woman sitting a lot of times) to make the actress look shorter. But in Tenet, she’s hovering above everyone. It’s mainly noticeable in her scenes with Kenneth Branagh, who’s not short by any means (177 cm) but can’t compare to Elizabeth (190 cm). Throughout the entire movie, I found their scenes fascinating and I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, until I’ve listened to the SinCast podcast about Tenet, where they were talking about it and I’ve realised, that yeah, they are right. You can also argue that her performance is the most memorable, as to me, she was given a lot to work with and she nailed it. Especially her scenes against Kenneth, who was dancing on a really fine line between being great villain and Russian caricature (at times, he might have crossed that line) were great, as we can see everything her character’s been dealing with, living with him.

I honestly can’t wait to watch this movie couple of times more, not just to wrap (or try to) my head around the concept, but because I really enjoyed myself. The movie is almost 2 and half hours long, but yet again with Nolan, you don’t really feel that, as you are just so into everything that’s happening, you won’t even notice. The movie never dragged on for me, I never got bored. And maybe, that’s the hidden brilliance of Nolan’s movies – just confuse your viewers and that way, they won’t complain about the movies being too long…?

Overall, Tenet is something, that I feel will be more appreciated over time, than now. I can see this being one of those movies, that 20 years from now, we will be reading articles about containing lines like “it wasn’t as highly received as his other movies when it was released, but now it’s a cult classic, and considered among his best work”. Honestly, that wouldn’t have surprised me, as I know I’ve said it a lot throughout this review, this film requires multiple viewings. That’s the only thing that’s preventing me from rating this even higher, I want to see whether this movie improves or not upon multiple viewings. Knowing Nolan, it probably will.

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

Until next time,

Luke

The little movie, that could. The film, nobody expected to be as good as it was. Those two sentences sum up The Invisible Man perfectly. What originally was slated to be a second movie in the “dark universe” franchise, that failed to happen, as The Mummy (2017) made no money and didn’t impress anybody from critics to general audiences, found its way to Leigh Whannell, who was given little to no money (around 7 million dollars, which in Hollywood is nothing) to make this work on its own. What is most interesting to me, was the fact that if The Mummy didn’t fail, this movie would have been different for sure (bigger budget for one), but also, it would have starred Johnny Depp as the invisible man. And that could have been interesting to say the least. But that’s the only reason to be slightly sad about the fact the “dark universe” didn’t happen. To be fair, with what we’ve been given, we (the movie watching audience) definitely got the best possible movie, considering it only costed 7 million dollars!

There are two main things, that contributed to this movie’s overall brilliance – innovation of this story in really clever way and Elisabeth Moss. Yes, I know it’s more than two factors involved, but to me, those are the two main reasons, why I enjoyed this film so much.

Let’s start with the story and how it got updated for this day and age. That’s not always easy thing to do, or in some cases even the best/smartest thing to do (as I’ve argued recently with Scoob! (2020, my review here), that some stories don’t play well in today’s environment and should remain in the past setting), but in this case, it worked really well, because Leigh Whannell, who not only directed it, but has also written a script for it, changed two key things. He grounded the fantasy element of The Invisible Man in science (it’s not the person, who has an accident, or suddenly becomes invisible, but they need a suit, that also looks pretty believable to work) and most importantly, he shifted the focus of this film. Yes, The Invisible Man is not the main character/protagonist of this movie, even though it might seem like that, but Leigh grounded this movie by making it part thriller, part drama about toxic relationship, and how it feels like to be in one. Really smart and ballsy choice to make Elisabeth Moss the main protagonist of this movie, and that brings me to my other point, which will be just me, admiring Elisabeth’s talent.

I need to admit something – I’ve always heard about how talented she was, and I have seen her in couple of movies prior, but I still have yet to see her big performance pieces such as The Handmaid’s Tale (2017 – ?) and Mad Men (2007 – 2015) as those are the two main things I have always heard mentioned alongside her name. So for me, she was a revelation. What she can showcase in a few seconds, with no lines… I was blown away by her. She is the true driving force behind this movie, she basically never goes off the screen for the entire length of it and yet, you want more of her. Now I understand people mentioning her name between those being snubbed for an Oscar nomination, as she should have definitely been at least nominated. It is a shame that she wasn’t, but I am sure she will get the recognition she deserves soon. She’s one of those actresses, for whom the phrase isn’t “if she wins an Oscar”, but “when she wins an Oscar” as it will eventually happen.

The movie is really clever, entertaining, gripping and really well thought out with couple of twists I didn’t expect. That is why it pains me, that I can’t give it the ultimate rating. For me, the last 30 minutes or so, is what slightly spoils the movie. I am not really talking about the actual ending, I thought that was amazing. I can’t really discuss what bothered me without going into spoilers, so just for a few tiny nitpicks…

Beware, SPOILERS are coming!

I really liked the idea/twist that his brother not only knew about him terrorizing Elisabeth’s life all along, but also was wearing the suit (what I liked is the movie never tells you how many times it was Elisabeth’s boyfriend bothering her and how many times it was his brother) and had part in the entire thing too. But my main issue was with the whole scene, where Elisabeth’s character is fighting back and escaping the mental hospital. She damages the suit, so it glitches and finally, there are guards, who can clearly see somebody has this kind of technology (let alone, they would have had cameras, right?) so that’s great. My two issues: Number one, Elisabeth’s character is down on the floor, the invisible man is fighting and mostly killing guards left right and centre. I am pretty sure she’s within a reach of a gun from one of the guards, but we can see her just being on the ground, observing everything…? She should be keen to at least injure him, to finally have the evidence she isn’t crazy. Also, in the same scene, even though he kills most of the guards, he does let some live – why? That made zero sense – their entire plan was to make everybody believe she’s crazy, but if you let people, who have seen a person in some sort of glitching invisibility suit walk away, surely that’s defeating the entire carefully crafted plan…?

I know, these are two fairly minor things, but until that scene, everything was grounded in reality, where you felt bad for Elisabeth, but at the same time, you would not have believed her either! Think about it, somebody tells you, that bad things happen around them because their ex (that’s supposed to be dead) is somehow invisible and haunting her. Of course you wouldn’t have believed anybody like that, and that is what makes this movie so chilling. We can clearly see she isn’t crazy, but we can also understand why everybody would think she was. And until that hospital escape, everything made sense to me. That is why those two tiny details bothered me maybe a bit too much.

Overall, The Invisible Man had no right to turn out that well. But yet again, it proves that it’s not the budget or star power, that makes great movies. It’s stories and most importantly creators, who have new perspective, who bring something new to the table, who can think outside of the box. Especially in the thriller/horror genre – go back and study the most beloved ones – they are not just “scary” movies. They always comment on something bigger than themselves. They always address much bigger things, often overlooked. This film addresses toxic relationships and makes a horror movie out of something, that’s bit too real for some people, but that’s what makes it scary and unfortunately relatable. Definitely a movie I will re-watch and who knows? Maybe next time, even those two tiny things won’t bother me that much. It’s definitely one of the best movies of 2020.

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

Until next time,

Luke

I really like movies like Souvenir, where you have never heard of the movie, you don’t know any of the actors in it, you just stumble upon it and the description looks intriguing enough that you watch it. And to yours (well, mine) surprise, it’s a pretty decent film!

The first things first – the movie is one woman show of Paulina Gaitan. Not only she’s incredibly attractive woman, but she’s a great actress and undoubtedly the main reason to watch this film. Isabel is one of those characters, that I am grateful we still get to see in films – somebody, who feels real. By that I mean, even though she’s the main protagonist and I think portrayed as overall good person in the movie, the character has flaws, makes self-sabotaging/self-destructive choices throughout, that make her feel real. There is nothing worse than having “black or white” characters in your stories, where they are either all good, or all bad. That is why I love these tinier, indie movies, as they often deal with more real-life stories portrayed in a real-life way, as we all have our good and bad sides. Paulina Gaitan really nailed it here, she’s portrayed her character in really convincing way, where you are routing for her, even though there are times she’s making it more difficult to do so.

The movie deals with couple of topics, but there is one that underlines and connects them all – family and everything around it. From the surrogate pregnancy, to what would you sacrifice to see your child again, or on the opposite side of that spectrum, what happens if you decide not to have any children? How does that choice impact your relationship(s)? The movie is definitely more about exploring different sides of having or not having a family, then “just” the surrogate mother angle of this story.

Souvenir also makes some bold choices and it caught me off guard once or twice, where I was surprised the story went that way. I really want to avoid spoilers, so let me just say that I am not talking about the ending per say, as that didn’t surprise me that much, but what happens prior to the ending. Not every movie would have done it and I applaud it.

Unfortunately, the movie sometimes feels uneven in its pacing and one thing that did bother me was the whole Isabel’s relationship with her teacher Bruno. And not because it would be inappropriate, as she’s been out of school for a good while and she’s pursuing him, so we avoid that “teacher falls for his former student” cliché, but we never get WHY Isabel, this stunning young woman, is so desperately after him, ageing man, who doesn’t want family. Yeah, I know there is the line about “I was always one of your biggest fans.” when they bump into each other at the beginning, but that’s as much as we get. I know this might seem strange, but for some reason I’ve never understood why she was so obsessed with him in the first place and in the movie, that managed to portray her in such a realistic way, that was the one question I wished they’d answer about her character.

The ending, that I guess was supposed to be a surprise, wasn’t really surprise to me, as it felt a bit more telegraphed than it needed to be…? Maybe it was just me (and this will be a struggle to describe without going into spoilers, so bear with me) but I knew once you have your character with two quite unique traits, there is no way that’s not blowing up in their face and making them re-consider everything. Come to think of it, it’d be interesting to see how that character’s world get shaken up a bit…? I know, I am being vague and for anyone, who hasn’t seen this film, this is not helpful at all, but once/if you see the movie, I think you will get what I mean.

Overall, Souvenir surprised me with how good it was. It has a pretty intriguing story, great main actress (I really need to check out Narcos (2015 – 2016) where most people know Paulina Gaitan from) and depending on how many movies like this you have seen, it might surprise you once or twice. There are couple of stretches, where the movie doesn’t “flow” as well, but I would say if you have a chance, give it a shot, as it’s really decent drama.

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

Until next time,

Luke

Where to start with this one… I really wished to love this movie, because I really, really like uniquely weird fantasy movies like that (two of the most obvious examples from the same era would be The NeverEnding Story (1984) and of course, Labyrinth (1986), two “darker than your average” kids fantasy movies) in which you don’t see the most advanced CGI and even as a child you can tell, there is some sort of “cheap” quality to them – the sets, puppets, effects, but that doesn’t matter, because you do love those stories, that unique atmosphere those movies created and they both stayed with you, for better or worse. One might traumatize you (I don’t think my 10 year old self was ready for the “horse drowns in swap of sadness scene) one might make you ask questions (is David Bowie really hitting on 16 year old Jennifer Connelly? I mean, I can’t blame him, but damn…) but both had their uniqueness, both standout in their ways and I don’t mind revisiting either of them. Now, The Dark Crystal is a different story, maybe because unlike those two movies, I didn’t grow up watching it? But it very much felt like a product of its time, to make something for the sake of making something. And even though the runtime is just around 89 minutes, it managed to bore me…

The thing about this movie that’s the most striking to me, it clearly takes its inspiration from Star Wars, which is not a bad thing per say, but it fails to deliver on any big, major moments. The entire movie can be summed up to about 2 pretty short sentences, which also is not necessarily a bad thing, as plenty of movies I adore are based on really simple concepts, executed well. And that was my problem with The Dark Crystal, I don’t think it was executed well. If you are falling asleep while watching a fantasy movie, that’s only 89 minutes long, because this could have been literally told in 10/15 minutes, something is wrong.

It pains me to say this, because I have really enjoyed the look and the feel of this movie, as again, I grew up watching fantasy movies such as this one, so even though some of those puppets looked really terrifying, rather than cute/charming (the main hero Jen looked like a puppet, who somehow got hold of Instagram’s most annoying smoothing filter in 1982 and used it for the entire movie) you eventually get used to it and admire the craftsmanship behind it. The production design on this movie was honestly great, some scenes looked amazing even by today’s standards, but the story, the characters, nothing grabbed me the way it was supposed to. The humour didn’t land, the “epic” finale didn’t land, nothing story-wise worked for me.

When comes to movies like this, I always tend to wonder, what would happen, if I watched this movie when I was the target audience for it? Would I adore this film and looked back at it fondly, had I seen it when I was 10 years old? Do you need to be a certain age, to fully appreciate movies like The Dark Crystal? But if that’s the case, does it make the movie good, or bad? I know art is subjective, and there is no one right answer to this question, but it always makes me wonder, every time I see a film like this, that’s a cult classic for one generation of people who seem to adore it, and when I finally get to watch it, it leaves me not only stone cold, but also bored.

Watching this film, I really got intrigued to revisit the already mentioned Labyrinth, as that’s the closest “fair” comparison to The Dark Crystal, and see whether I still love it the way I have. I think the answer will be yes, but I don’t think it’s purely nostalgia driven – you can make the argument that this movie walked, so Labyrinth could run. That this movie was just almost a “demo” version of things to come, as thinking back, even as a child, Labyrinth always felt like the strangest fever dream, that I loved, but wasn’t sure why. Years later, I think I finally realised I love it because of Bowie, young Jennifer, great soundtrack, and the overall creative force behind it, where mainly the story feels unique and original. This movie (story-wise) doesn’t feel like that.

Overall, it’s been interesting watching The Dark Crystal for the very first time. It’s definitely a different movie from a different time and you either are on board with that (most likely meaning you grew up watching it) or not and that will heavily reflect your enjoyment of it. I am glad I have finally watched this movie, as it gave me another glimpse of the artwork, that’s slowly dying (mostly practical stunts/CGI puppets etc.). It’s just shame, the story bored me to tears and I couldn’t get into it.

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

Until next time,

Luke

I need to admit something – I’ve only watched the previous Bad Boys movies just once. It’s been a long time ago, so I was really young. And when you are really young, you tend to like most movies you see. So I remember liking both of them, as they were fun action movies. I am sure a re-watch might probably be handy to see, whether I still like them or not. Anyway, the point of that story was that I had no previous attachment to this franchise. To be honest, I was surprised it’s been brought back and what’s more surprising is, how many people went to cinemas to see it (see for yourself) and of course, because of the lovely COVID-19 pandemic, we all have been having lately, this will always be the highest grossing movie of 2020. Yep, check it for yourself.

And let’s be fair, this movie isn’t actually bad. It’s entertaining, the action is mostly done well and not overly edited, the main duo is “a bit” older than we remember, but hey, they still have the chemistry and we get some “new blood” like Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and Charles Melton who are fun and I could imagine their characters having some sort of spin-off, you know, exactly according to what’s in fashion these days. The main thing about Bad Boys for Life is that even though there is one or two twists you might (not) see coming, the rest is your “same old” story, you come to expect from this franchise. Which is not bad, but the movie is just slightly over 2 hours long and towards the end, even though the action is still going on, you are so numb to it, you don’t really care that much, almost like there is too much action…? It’s like you watch some many music videos, you are numb to seeing a great booty (nah, that would never happen :-)).

As mentioned before, the movie is entertaining enough, but I couldn’t help but to be bored after a while, knowing what will happen next. Only two things genuinely surprised me, but I won’t spoil them, let’s just say one was about somebody dying or not, and the other was, as Vin Diesel‘s character would say in the Fast & Furious franchise, about family. But here’s the thing, even though those are there, the movie barely stops. The movie wants to have its emotional moment(s), while in the next 5 minutes, we go back to action and bullets flying everywhere. And you can’t have it all, movie, pick a lane!

Also, let’s mention the finale – and don’t worry, I don’t think this will count as a spoiler, as I need to address CGI. There is this big set piece involving fire and I understand they can’t actually set a fire to a building, but Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ, have they run out of time, money, or both when they were making that? I swear this was the only thing that kind of woke me up, as it’s been a while since one piece of bad CGI stood out so much to me (funnily enough, the only other example I can think off right now is another Will Smith movie, Gemini Man (2019), my review here, where the end involves one CGI character that looked straight up wrong) and took me out of the movie for a good minute.

Anyway, Bad Boys for Life was a mixed bag. On one hand, you have fun for most of the movie, the characters are likeable, the action is decent and you are mostly having fun. Unfortunately, the movie overstays its welcome, and other than two surprises, you will know where the movie is going. And there is one bad CGI fire at the end of it. Of course there are already plans for Bad Boys 4 (no date yet) because of course there is, if your movie makes some extra money, we need to milk it. I honestly hope, as much as I like Will and Martin Lawrence, they will have the “young guns” take over in this one. You only get to make one “one last time” movie, you had something decent, let’s not spoil, shall we? And also, it wouldn’t be as fun to see those two “old guys” going at it again, let them retire respectfully.

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

Until next time,

Luke