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Reviews
Sprung (2022)
Greg Garcia at the top of his game
Sprung is a masterclass in TV comedy. Over its 9 episodes (10 if you count the final double episode) it weaves a wonderful, uplifting, heartwarming story of a usual bunch of Garcia misfits forging (and forging) their way in a new world. Using Covid as its device in the most deceptively brilliant ways, staring the often ridiculousness of where we found ourselves in recent history straight in the face and laughing at our absurdities. But it is not sombre or disaster laden or melancholic or in the least bit depressing. It is genius.
The cast are exceptional. The dream team of and Dillahut and Plimpton reunited after Raising Hope smash every moment. There is not one duff character, however small.
The visual gags are as strong and important as the verbal, but Garcia's greatest skill is when he combines a seemingly innocuous throwaway joke with a juxtaposing sight gag. It simply blows my mind!
A limited series which probably won't spring to a series 2 (although I live in hope), but it's commentary on the ridiculous, unfathomable, crazy times we live in make it unmissable.
Gangs of London (2020)
Compellingly dreadful
So much style, so much swag. Truly atrocious dialogue, the acting is abysmal, the script like a 15 year old boy's frenzied wet dream. And yet, there's something compelling about these terrible characters. To discover this is in part based on a video game is no surprise, lurching from ludicrous set piece to ludicrous set piece. None of this is realistic or remotely relatable. And the mood is so relentlessly dreary. The violence can be truly shocking, but much like a video game it hammers (!) the violence home on such regular degree that you become immune to it. If being in a gang is so depressing, just give it up - get a proper job.
But it looks fabulous, rockets along, messes nicely with a timeline and is addictive.
Good on Paper (2021)
Iliza Does Little
I have really enjoyed being introduced to Iliza Schlesinger's stand up - funny, smart and well performed. I also really enjoyed her performance in Pieces of a Woman - a very surprising serious turn. But her sketch show was tonally all over the place, and occasionally troublesome - she has huge problems with weight, it seems. Her issue, not ours. The subject of someone's weight rears it's head early on in this film, when a potential boyfriend is not quite up to her exacting physical standards.
The premise is a little interesting, and veers into some kookie territory later on - but really is low on substance and merit. I appreciate that Schlesinger based the story, in some part, on purported actual events, but as she funds/writes more original work it is hugely apparent that her points of reference and life experience are very basic and her understanding of anything outside some Valley bubble is very narrow.
The House That Jack Built (2018)
Jack - Portrait of a Serial Killer
I don't ever really know what to say about Lars von Trier films other than the reputation that precedes them is generally always more scintillating than the actual viewing. Discussions on the extreme, brutal violence and explicit sex - especially against women (there's a whole section in the middle of this film that addresses why women are generally the victims..) fuel the notoriety and people going to great lengths to tell you 'things that happen in this film' that simply don't. There are things that happen in the plot, but they are never visually realised.
So if you're going along expecting to see children shot in the head, or a woman have her breast cut off, you'll be disappointed (!). Now, you see? Now I've mentioned those things, you're imagining them! But you won't see them *happen* in this film.
Yes, the subject matter is brutal (and there are some violent scenes - Uma Thurman gets an unexpected nose job from a car jack), and yes, the aforementioned child shooting/breast removal do happen, but you won't see them.
This is almost a paint by numbers LVT and comes across as a sort of 'Jack - Portrait of a Serial Killer'. It's got von Triers's shaky, intrusive camera, is quite thoughtful, incredibly tense, has dreadful dialogue, is really boring in parts, is absolutely beautifully shot, and probably quite pointless..
Not sure who you'd recommend it to. Film students? Misogynists? Serial killers? A mixture of the three? Saying that - Peeping Tom is a much better film.
I Feel Pretty (2018)
Cute!
Reading through these negative reviews and I'm struck that they all have feel about them. The negative reviews are not for the film, but a seemingly a complete, almost pathological hatred of Amy Schumer. I can't understand where we have got to where people obsess about their hatred for someone.Move on. Do something else. Try and be happy. I don't think there's a single 1 star review which details ANYTHING about this film not gleaned from the trailer.
I've seen this film. It's formulaic, certainly, but it's so cute, well paced, well played and I laughed out loud on numerous occasions. I really enjoyed seeing Michelle Williams doing something different - there hasn't been a more squeaky blonde since Little Shop's Audrey .
The message is clear and obvious from the outset, but until we actually DO start valuing ourselves without worrying about others perceptions of us we still need films like I Feel Pretty. I'm looking forward to watching it again.
All I See Is You (2016)
A thoughtful, well directed, beautifully shot and acted 'sort of' thriller
I went into this film blind (pun intended) not really knowing much about it at all, but needing something 'romantic' from Netlix for a Saturday afternoon. Blake Lively is always interesting to me whether in engaging dramas like Age of Adeline or in engaging nonsense such as The Shallows.
It's immediately interesting and the opening images arresting: a kaleidoscope of bodies, a couple in the throes of passion, silken sheets and milky skies - beautifully blended. The images make sense when we discover that Lively's character Gina, is blind - was blinded in a car accident that killed her parents. Her husband, James, dotes on her, caters for her every need, spoils her - he seems quietly, perhaps subconsciously grateful for the position of power their situation puts him in.
The first 30 minutes knits together the confusion and frustration of Gina's everyday life perfectly sometimes taking us behind her eyes to experience the lights and the shapes that Gina can almost see as we follow her to the pool, teaching guitar, and to the doctors where she is told that a transplant is possible.
The mood shifts dramatically when Gina regains partial sight. She gets a new lease of life. She soaks everything in. She wants to experience everything she's been missing. Gina is ecstatic in her new found sense - on a trip to Spain to visit her sister, she begins to shrug off the old Gina and starts to transform, sexing up her wardrobe, starting to wear makeup, almost purposefully seeking out moments to excite and arouse her. James starts to think that he won't be enough for her and indeed the things she took for granted are not what she expected and not necessarily what she wants.
Whilst what follows is definitely psychological, and in part thrilling, this is very much a study of a relationship on the precipice and the extremes we'll go to when cornered or desperate. Gina realises that life has options, and James will do anything he can to try and limit them, to salvage what they have.
I found this film incredibly satisfying. I found the union of Gina and James, the transition to a new way of living, Gina's effervescence for her new life and James's acute anxiety that he is about to lose everything really believable. There's a real tension and it's all played beautifully and naturally. There's a moment (a millisecond) near the end where it veers towards melodrama, and even though not the romantic comedy I was looking for, was a film I'm definitely glad I've seen.
Ready Player One (2018)
A waste of time
I must start by saying that I haven't read the book and wasn't sure what the film was about prior to seeing it. Now I've seen it, I won't be reading the book because I couldn't care less what it was about.
I'm not even sure who this movie is for. The script reads like a tweens audiobook with some swearing thrown in. There are seemingly no valid cultural references past 1989, and I find it hard to believe (considering the film is set in 2045) that this group of teens would still be acknowledging John Hughes movies. Yeah right - no-one under 30 does that NOW!
And the effects are all bluster. It's pretty, and I guess in a very immature way it's fun, but not once did I laugh, or gasp, or feel any sense of dread or menace - it was all so impotent.