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Reviews
The Boys (2019)
Funny?
Erm... Kinda funny but... I kinda f... hate costumed superheroes. Still... I think is... lame! Like... Ridiculous through the roof! But yea. It's... A gig. Americans... God help 'em.
Maniac (2018)
Is "Lemuria" even a name?
I don't know if that's relevant, but is Wendy Lemuria even a name? And why in the world she would sign the ledger with " " under Wendy Lemuria and get away with it?
She didn't cross over, did she? She's a McMurphy, isn't she?
Shimmer Lake (2017)
Immaginative, clever and very, very unpredictible
OK, so I've seen some reviews before I saw the movie and one of them caught my eye. Someone was comparing it with Memento. Well... No. Almost nothing like Memento. And by the way,That's not the only movie in reverse. Irreversible is another one and this is no Irreversible either. It' kinda one of a kind. And it's arguably a very good movie.
First, it's a brilliant cast and you wouldn't have this cast on a bad movie.
Benjamin Walker - I confess I've only seen him in The Choice and though I liked him there, I just loved him in Shimmer Lake. The cold blood he's got. Wow.
Rainn Wilson - Dwight Schrute from The Office. Should I say more?
Stephanie Sigman - small role in 007 Spectre and I think she had a very nasty role in Narcos. In Shimmer Lake she's just brilliant.
Mark Rendall - I have only one question: why don't we see Mark Rendall a lot more often? I've seen him in a few but... small roles, again. And with him it's the same: In Shimmer Lake he's fantastic.
And then: Rob Corddry, Ron Livingston and Wyatt Russell. Mostly comedies, but you see them suddenly in movies like Black Mirror or the Conjuring. They just shine.
The storyline is very solid even if it gets lost in the reversible layout. Strong characters and a twist that will make your day.
I say watch the movie and enjoy it.
The Thirteenth Tale (2013)
Watched after reading the book. Worst idea ever
So... It's really difficult to find a director and a script writer with fewer imagination and lack of drama perception.
SCRIPT WRITER: I was actually shocked to discover that Christopher Hampton, the script writer, is Oscar winning. I admit I never saw Dangerous Liaisons but I did see Atonement and I liked it dearly. Yet this script lacks everything expected from a script writer of this amplitude. The way he lost momentum of what in the book are most carefully threaded subplots, some of the dialog not only simply obliterated, but, worse, amputated, characters unreasonable modified or even excluded altogether in a most uninspired way... all tat is absolutely disconcerting.
I never expected a movie to follow every letter of the book it's based upon, but there is a limit to which you are bound if you want your movie to hoover around the same level of quality the book does. Christopher Hampton though, thought different. I'm under the impression that he wrote this script in the most unprofessional way he could ever write a script, in the manner one would do if one forgot about the deadline and remembered it the day it should have been delivered. Script wise, the movie is a complete shame on Christopher Hampton's panoply.
DIRECTOR: If I was Diane Setterfield I would be very unsatisfied by how this movie turned out. But I think more than being disappointed by the script writer, I would be so by the director. James Kent directed more than one movie based on a book. One of them - I loved the book but I HATED the movie - is 11.22.63. Not gonna comment it here though. The distracted way in which The Thirteenth Tale was directed is disconcerting. Unbelievable how actors like Vanessa Redgrave's or Olivia Colman's acting was reduced to utter amatorism by this director. The same sensation I experienced watching 11.22.63 which I already mentioned. James Franco looked like an impotent amator, not like the great actor he actually is. The only actress that resisted this mutilation of talent and turned out completely untainted was Sophie Turner. Thumbs up for her - and not the first time, either.
The location of the filming is superb - I've been in the area (not seen the actual park, only Helmsley) and just like probably most of the countryside England, it is breathtaking - yet this doesn't transpire from the movie. The scenes concentrate on debilitated characters instead of the majesty of the land. A house that is the actual centre in the book for most of the plot is barely filmed here and there and that's only an example.
So, considering the two main things that can make a movie an Oscar winning one or a simple celluloid pulp - just, as, unfortunately, The Thirteenth Tale is - scripting and directing, were impossibly idiotic this time. Hence my recommendation: don't watch the movie if you read the book, unless you are a script writer or a director and you want to learn what not to do when doing your job. Or, better yet, just read the book and forget the movie. You'll have more to win like that.