This movie… I don’t get it. The story is a pretty ordinary “I need to live my own life” coming of age tale; the path this movie takes is also predictable (her singing clashing with her family “responsibilities”), and that becomes a significant plot point later. The only difference is the CODA stuff (Child of Deaf Adults) thrown in. On paper, I’ve never thought that would make such a difference. But it did. Because CODA managed to do something extraordinary – the movie took almost every cliché in the book, every single turn this movie made you could see from a mile away and yet… I loved it. And what’s more, this is only the second movie ever in my almost 31 years on this planet that made me cry. Yep, only a second one.

The “wrinkle” that differentiates this film from any other coming of age story, the deaf aspect, was done well and with such care. It never felt “out of place”. And it’s easy to see why – the four main actors. Marlee Matlin, Troy Kotsur and Daniel Durant, three out of four family members, are deaf in real-life. And Emilia Jones is the only one in that family who isn’t. As the film title suggests, it’s mainly focused on Emilia (Ruby) and her journey, but, at the same time, not really. Because for this movie to work, you need to understand the family dynamic and the struggle of being the only hearing person and the responsibilities that “burden” brings upon your shoulders from a very early age. That was something CODA did so well. The family dynamic felt real, three dimensional and not forced. It’d be so easy to make one of her parents into a “villain” (and Marlee Matlin brilliantly dances on that fine line for her character), but they aren’t. Everybody’s reasons for their behaviour are valid to an extent, and you understand them.

I have always known the Oscars were not fair as there are so many actors and actresses who get “left out” every year. Well, after CODA finished, I felt weird. Because I thought I had seen one of the best performances in a film in the longest time and someone who should be a clear frontrunner, but then I check and discover she isn’t even nominated! Yes, I am talking about Emilia Jones. Because of what she needs to do in this film and what she had to do to even portray her character as realistically as possible (signing and singing lessons, operating a trawler)… my mind can’t comprehend that. The movie is about her, and for us to connect with her, she needs to hit every single mark every time. She needs to argue with her family and sign like she’d done it her entire life. I am not a deaf person, nor do I know ASL, but how she came across… I was stunned by her. Even now, when I think back to two specific scenes involving her character, the tears are creeping back because both times she commands the screen. But not in an obvious way, and she isn’t overshadowing her family. I honestly believe we will look back a few years from today and wonder, how is it possible she wasn’t nominated?

Another person I thought did an excellent job was Daniel Durant. Yet again, he could have easily been perceived or portrayed as a villain. But instead, because of his performance, you knew where he was coming from; you understood his anger. Because it was coming from a good place, I thought he did exceptionally well in his role and would love to see him getting more recognition because there was something about him. He took what could have been the thankless role and made it unforgettable.

I will put up the spoiler tag soon, even though I don’t think what I will discuss is a big spoiler. Because if you watch the film, you know those scenes are probably coming, but I would love for people to enjoy and savour those moments for themselves, so…

Beware, SPOILERS are coming!

Ever since Emilia’s character signs for the first, by herself in that quarry, I knew this movie had me emotionally. But as I alluded to this before, there were two scenes where it got me properly. The first one was the concert, following Emilia’s dad making her sing for him while he puts his hands on her throat and chest to feel the song. The concert scene is a powerful example of brilliant filmmaking. Because we’ve heard her practising the titular song for a while before, we know what’s coming. And then we watch her family throughout the concert, looking almost bored (talking… well signing about what to have for dinner and looking around). And then, it switches to their point of view, of complete silence and them looking around simply to watch how others react to their daughter singing. And how some people are moved to tears. That was a crushing moment when you understand she excels at something her parents will never be able to fully enjoy with her, even if they tried their hardest. And how it was in that concert, it clicked for her dad, realising his daughter got talent. Hence the scene after that where he wanted to “feel” her talent for himself. What a brilliant scene.

And, of course, the Berklee audition scene. Everything from her arriving late to Eugenio Derbez being there on piano and fucking up on purpose when he could tell she needed to start again… That was already magical. But when her family sat down and Emilia noticed and began to sign for them as she was singing the song… that is when a tear or two managed to escape my usually cold, dead eyes. Ok, they are not that cold or dead (at least I hope not), but plenty of movies have brought me to almost crying. But most of the time, I manage not to cry, or something doesn’t fully click with me to push me over the edge. In CODA, everything came together. What a beautiful scene.

Overall, CODA is a perfect example of using clichés to your advantage. As mentioned before, this movie isn’t original. I mean, plenty of people might not know this, but CODA is a remake of a French film La famille Bélier (2014) that was criticised for having only one deaf person in the leading role. So you can see, I am not being unfair by stating the fact it’s not original and full of clichés. If you have seen a few movies in your life, nothing about this will surprise you. BUT, how it goes about everything and how the film navigates these clichés to tell a unique story about a girl, who had to grow up a bit too fast, is the bit that made CODA my favourite movie of 2021. Yes, that might change as I have not seen many presumably top-tier films, but this experience will be hard to top. Super easy, wholehearted recommend. Please, do yourself a favour and watch this film.

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 show my hand pretty early on here – I didn’t enjoy The Power of the Dog. I am writing this review right after the Oscar nominations for 2022, where it collected impressive 12 nominations. And I watched it only a couple of days ago, so it’s freshly in my mind. And I will try to explain as eloquently as possible my reasoning behind this hugely unpopular opinion, so bear with me.

The Power of the Dog felt to me like a character-driven film you need to feel. If you were to tell me that Terrence Malick directed some scenes here, I wouldn’t be shocked because, at times, this film feels really “Malickien”. And I don’t mind character-driven films where you need to be in a certain mood to watch them, quite the opposite; I tend to love them. That’s why I am still surprised by how much I didn’t enjoy my experience with this film.

Let me start with some positives first. This film is a performance piece first, and it shows. Every single person who got nominated hugely deserved it. Everyone from Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jesse Plemons, Benedict Cumberbatch to Kirsten Dunst all played their parts well. You understand where every single one of them is coming from, what they are going through and see that deep down, they all are, to an extent, broken people. So even though I didn’t enjoy this film as much as others have, I wouldn’t be miserable to see Benedict or Kirsten getting the Oscar.

What I also appreciated was the camera work. And here is where my first major issue with film appears. I thought it was stunning camera work for a movie that shouldn’t have it. What I am trying to say is this. The movie tries to make us believe everything here (including our often unwashed characters) is dirty, muddy, rough. Yet, the stunning shots don’t correspond to what we are seeing. I know this might sound like a weird gripe with this film, but it often pulled me out of the movie.

Another thing that pulled me out – the character never seemed that dirty. I know, I know, yet another weird detail, but I think it matters, especially in a movie like this, when you can see your main characters and they strike you as somebody who’s had a rough couple of days. But most of these people should have had most of their life rough. And they still look almost pristine, like nothing a quick bath/shower wouldn’t fix.

My biggest problem with this film and it will make me sound bad… Look, I am no expert. I have no formal movie education; I am just a film fan who has seen way too many movies, so take the next part, I am about to write with a pinch of salt, but I didn’t like the direction. And that was shocking to me, given I don’t mind Jane Campion, I have only seen one other movie of hers (The Piano, 1993) and that one I liked. But this must come down to a personal preference, as I am not saying she did a terrible job. Not by any means. I just thought for this particular narrative and characters, a vast majority of the wide/medium shots didn’t work. The movie felt too pretty, too “nature-porny” for me to get into these characters. It’s weird to write “I didn’t like the direction this movie took” only a few hours after Jane Campion got nominated for directing this film. It shows you what do I know, right?

I think I get what she was trying to do here. I believe she was trying to find some beauty in the “ugliness” of things, and I think that’s admirable. And for most people that seemed to click with them (even though on IMDb as it stands, it’s “only” 6.9/10), so obviously, I am in the minority here. But films are mainly visual mediums through which you get information about everything. And I haven’t felt like this in ages, where I knew what the movie was trying to do/say, I was enjoying all the performances, and yet, I was bored because the direction simply didn’t click with me. I can’t even remember the last time this happened.

The main thing I’ve gotten from listening and reading about this movie was most people liked the ending as they didn’t see it coming. And again, I am in the minority here, as that couldn’t have been clearer what needs to happen. I am talking about the relationship between Benedict’s and Kodi’s characters and the “final” result of that relationship. I won’t spoil anything, but for me, this shows the brilliance of this screenplay. The fact I knew what would happen doesn’t prove that somehow I am a genius (obviously I am not, I just slandered an Oscar-nominated director, shame on me!); it shows the actors did superb work making the characters their own. Where we, the audience, could see what is about to happen and why it’s inevitable.

Overall, The Power of the Dog is a strange one for me. Given everything I’ve heard about it before watching it, I went in expecting to at least like it, if not love it. But what happened was the more the movie played, the more I was getting “unplugged” from being in the film. And this is, unfortunately, a film where you need to be sucked in for its entire length to enjoy it. I will definitely re-watch it sooner rather than later to see whether it might click with me better because I need to repeat it – this is on me. I would still recommend for most people to watch it, if for nothing else, the performances by our main protagonists. See, this is why movies can never get old or boring to me – I thought I had “a type” of films I liked and here comes The Power of the Dog, something slow-burning, full of great performances but for reasons I can only sum up as “direction”, it didn’t click with me. But, there is always the next time. It will be interesting to re-visit this movie, whether anything will change.

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

Until next time,

Luke

I don’t get it. This movie has three ultra-mega-super-duper stars that all proven they can carry movies, and those were all actions movies nonetheless! So how come, when you put Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds together in one movie and let them “loose”, you get something like Red Notice that is not bad, but also not great? This film might be the most average action film that ever averaged on your TV or iPad (please, for the love of everything holy, don’t want movies or TV shows on iPads). What Red Notice also proved, albeit accidentally, is that Netflix still doesn’t know how to “crack the code” and make decent films. They figured out how to shower the stars with money and attract them to Netflix. But if the script falls short of the star quality, that might be their eventual downfall.

Red Notice was a frustrating film because I wanted to like it. I like all three main protagonists; I love action/adventure films and don’t mind when they get unbelievable or silly, as long as they entertain me, it’s all good, I can forgive a lot. But in this film, it almost seemed like the script revolved around our three protagonists without giving them any lines. Because why, if we can improv most of it? They all have massive charisma and are witty, so surely they can be funny? Well… kind of. Most jokes don’t land the way this film intended, and (not surprisingly), the funniest person out of the titular trio was Ryan Reynolds. But even his performance felt like he was running on fumes at times.

And I don’t blame him. Because I can say the same thing about Dwayne and Gal, all of them did good enough jobs, so nobody can say they didn’t earn their massive paychecks, but at the same time, we have seen all three shine in other films. Whereas in Red Notice, they don’t shine as much as they flicker…? I am still not convinced whether it was the direction they got or something else, but they all had much better moments in other films. I wouldn’t be surprised if this film became one of the go-to examples of “just because you can get the biggest stars, it doesn’t mean your film will be exceptional”. Or, in this case, even great.

But that all goes back to the script and lack of tension. This film invited the following comparison by hinting at this movie a few times throughout it, so let’s compare them. You can tell this film wants to be this generation’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) so bad. But it never had a chance, with a script like this and here’s why. There is no tension because the MacGuffin our heroes are chasing down doesn’t exist. And Raiders built everything on Ark that could exist as we have some records of it. And Hitler was genuinely into weird religions and had people searching the world for artefacts that might give him an edge to win the war. But ok, let’s put that aside as films should be allowed to make MacGuffins up, and movies don’t have to be historically accurate. And this is where Red Notice falls into another, much bigger trap – no tension, character-wise.

I don’t know if you remember or whether you might have re-watched Raiders of the Lost Ark recently, but it still holds up. And part of that reason is our main protagonist is just a person. He gets his ass kicked throughout the film a lot; he’s not Superman or an untouchable bad-ass. Therefore if he ends up in a dangerous situation, you actually are worried for him. Sure, deep down, you know the main hero won’t die in the middle of the film, but still. Whereas here (and to be honest, not just here but in most modern action films), the filmmakers make the mistake of having the hero being this bullet-dodging kung-fu master who’s never too tired for a fight. Who, no matter what situation they end up in, you know ultimately it won’t matter as they will free themselves in about five to ten minutes. And this film is, yet again, not the only one that does this sort of thing, but it might be the most outrageous example.

And since we have no stakes here, the film becomes forgettable. I don’t know about you, but I like my action movie not to be forgettable. But I can’t say this film was awful because of it. Because it’s not, it’s perfectly… ok. And that might be the ultimate “sin” against this film. An action movie with stars as big as all three main ones here shouldn’t be just ok. A film like this, trying to be a simple adventure film, should be more memorable because this is one of those where I’ve seen it a few months ago and can barely remember anything specific. But we are getting a sequel, so… yey?

Overall, Red Notice is the perfect film to put on the background while you go about your day doing chores. I can’t believe I am saying this (as I don’t watch movies like that), but it is what it is. You can tune in at any time and quickly figure out what happened, it doesn’t require a lot of your mental energy, and it won’t “offend” you by any means. That all sounds great until you realise Netflix paid around 200 million dollars for this. And I know most of that went to wages for our top three protagonists, and honestly, I can’t blame them for that. If somebody offered me that money, it’d be hard to say no. My question is, how long can Netflix “just” throw money away like this and not produce anything worth your full attention? Because I have a sneaky feeling that most people at Netflix didn’t want to spend 200 million dollars on a movie that’s “perfect background noise, for when you are doing home chores”.

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

Until next time,

Luke

As I hinted in my Encanto (2021) review, I have seen Luca, and I liked it. Even though it came out way earlier than Encanto, for some reason, it took me a while to get to this film. And that was a shame because I enjoyed it. Not as much as I have enjoyed Encanto, but still…

I promise this entire review I won’t be comparing Luca to Encanto. But I have to do it at least at the start of my review, as not only did both come out in 2021, they are both on the “lighter” side of Pixar films. They both still have deeper themes as we are used to with Pixar movies, however watching both, you will quickly discover they are more light-hearted. And that’s a good thing, considering the last couple of years we’ve all had. And both movies have one more thing in common – they are so stunningly unique.

Luca might be the “brightest” film Pixar has done so far. There was something about the colour scheme that was so vibrant and soothing that was where Luca shined (the pun kind of intended) the most for me. The animators managed to capture Italy stunningly. I’ve never been there (but it’s on my list, and if it weren’t for COVID, it would have been crossed out by now), but I have seen a few Italian movies, and this is how I’ve always imagined Italy to be.

What I also liked was there were not that many Italian stereotypes. Look, there were a few, after all, how else would you make a movie set in Italy without saying things like “spaghetti, pasta”, etc., but the film never felt lazy or too stereotypical. Any other, lesser studio (*cough* Illumination *cough*) would have put ten times more Italian stereotypes and lazy puns within the first 20 minutes than Luca had in the entire film, I guarantee it.

As mentioned before, the story is pretty simple – what if instead of Mermaids, we would have Mermen (I know, officially it is a sea monster, but that’s just mean), and they lived amongst us? And this is where the deeper theme comes in – you could see this as a parallel for coming out, or you could see this as a metaphor for immigrants (us against them subject is present mainly towards the end). I appreciated that Pixar crafted this film in such a way it’s only up to you what you take from it. After all, you don’t have to take anything from it, and you can focus on the story of a little boy who is desperately trying to fit in, and more importantly, trying to learn new things.

That was another aspect of this film; I enjoyed Luca’s natural inclination for learning. I loved how Luca’s curiosity and eagerness to learn was displayed; it felt authentic and brought me back to my childhood when I wanted to know more about anything. Also, I can’t forget to mention the perfect voice casting of Jacob Tremblay as the titular character of Luca. His voice fits perfectly with the main character, and it was impossible not to root for him from the very start.

The only reason I am not rating Luca higher is quite simple – it goes as quickly as it comes. What I mean by that is; since it’s such a light-hearted story, it’s easy to get into it. But when the movie was over, I couldn’t help but feel I wanted a bit more. The primary story conflict got resolved pretty quickly, even the stakes never felt as high… And when the film you are watching is like that, chances are you won’t remember much from the movie after a couple of days. And that is what happened. I still remember the stunning animation, the fact I felt (at times) like I was in Italy, but if you ask me about details, I draw a blank.

And that is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, you need to chill and be transported to someplace magical (like Italy :-)) where there isn’t that much for you to worry about. I suppose, when I re-watch this film, I will be smarter and see how many things still apply. It will be interesting to see whether I’ll feel the same, or maybe I will discover that I’ve underestimated/oversimplified this film, and it actually offers much more. It is a possibility, but for now, all I know is this wasn’t the “top tier” Pixar for me. But we all know that bar is set incredibly high.

Overall, Luca is an almost perfect animated movie. It’s not breaking any new grounds story-wise, but it has the unique power to transport you to Italy. Where you will swear, you are there, alongside Luca, Alberto and Gulia, enjoying pasta, spaghetti and some cool gelato. Yes, be aware, this film will make you hungry. If you want to watch it on an empty stomach, you might be in for torture. The only thing this film had going against it would be the slightly weaker story. But hey, if you have one of those days where all you need is a cute animated movie to watch, then Luca might be for you.

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

Until next time,

Luke