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Poor Things (2023)
Didn't you know AI can do movies now
Dall-e Keywords: Art House, Autism, Folklore Avant-garde, Socialism, Mid Century Modern, Dark Comedy, Fashion, Cartoon Network Flapjack, Feminism, Colorful caricature.
People clapped when it finished. Cool. Nearly all aspects of the film were truly flawless, except for 'the point of it all', the mission, the message, the lesson, etc. Someone unaware of modern Hollywood and Emma Stone's affiliations might be confused when looking for it in this film about ethics and XXX. This is where a lot of gaps in the story happen and one is left to wonder "Why" very often. The film was written around 'The Mission', instead of the other way around.
Because AI might as well had written it (with minor human involvement), it's a bit scrambled, so try to follow... A XXX woman is an empowered and enlightened being free from the cage of God and man. God is man, good and evil. Aggressive dominant male is weak, exchanged for (demands) even weaker Passive submissive cucked into infinity, emasculates hyper aggressive male by turning him into the animal he is, and restores balance with polyamorous fem-lesbian (femme) in protest. Man is the servant of women. Children and problems are as synonymous as heaven & hell. Feminism is freedom of self, and socialism is freedom from God and man.
*Bell rings*
Sally: Excuse me, teacher? Is it not true that sexual liberty cannot exist without men to exercise it?
Teacher: And?
Sally: Well, how does opening our legs like we open our minds put us in a position of power? Shouldn't we be giving men less of what they want if we are to be masters over them?
Teacher: What you're referring to is what men have been trying to sell for millennia. Do not forget that 'The Mission' includes domesticating the male to eliminate the need for such conservative acts. XXX is where a woman's power lies, the liberation of it is as much an exercise for women, than it is for men. We are in control of the powers they try to take away from us.
Sally: yes, but we're taught that money is a system that men made to control us also, so shouldn't we reject prostitution as it's the most a woman can do to serve men in all capacity? Shouldn't they be serving us without it?
Teacher: They already do that naturally darling, this is about risking nothing in the process.
It wasn't the questions that sent poor little Sally to detention that day, but that she questioned anything at all. The only valid question Sally could've asked is "What can I do to support The Mission?" which is more an affirmation, but still; all she should've said that day.
5/10.
Roswell: Baby, It's You (2001)
This episode is where the writing goes south
I don't know if there was a writers strike, a vacation or what, but once season 2 starts, the story board and dialogue gets questionable. There's only so much I can ignore from the start before i'm moved to post about it. When the snow starts towards the end, i'm baffled about why she would choose to do this to begin with, and clearly Michael "HAS" to come around and mention what the audience is thinking, but everything she's saying is as if she were reading computer generated lines, completely scripted and lifeless, that's the theme for this episode and many more to come unfortunately. It's like when Alex dies and, Isabel says "he has to use his powers to open the door"... that set off the 140th dialogue issue alarm since the season began. Whats even more unusual is that the inconsistencies in the quality of writing are all over the place. We'll get a handful of scenes with perfectly written dialogue, and another handful of trash. The next episode: S2 Ep20 "Off the Menu" is perfectly example of this, and probably the episode where anyone watching can tell something's gone wrong behind-the-scenes. If anyone knows what happened, I'm sure we would all love to know.
Nip/Tuck: Sal Perri (2005)
Perfect execution
I'm only writing this as testament to David Nutter, the writers, and to all those who remember what television was like 2005. It was a good year for medical dramas, House MD, Grey's Anatomy, ER, but only Nip/Tuck was allowed to really cut loose. To had been sitting there, watching this till the end in complete disbelief that you've allowed yourself to be so invested in a fiction, and that this series just pulled off one of the most brilliant conclusions to an episode. What a feeling.
I'm sure there's a long story as to how they got David to direct the episode. May we one day find out.
Geukhanjikeob (2019)
Best Chicken I've Ever Had
Making good chicken is not an expressionless pursuit of frozen poultry, cellophane wrap and robotic assembly. A true cook understands that preparing a dish is a sacred art, honorific in the exchange of life.
Excellent preparation and strategically calculated ingredients make for a perfectly balanced marinate sauce over succulent (yet crispy) chicken. This chicken is neither over or under fried, the sauce isn't too sweet, spicy, thick or too complex. Although the sauce has an unusual character, little effort is made to create something completely unique, instead; exploits the forgotten fundamentals of what makes real sticky chicken, thus landing in a purgatorious state to be judged for both its good, and sinful deeds. This is chicken exposed and uncensored, the aroma is a tease leading to what becomes a deliciously erotic bliss. I am forced to wonder, is it really even chicken?
2019 is off to a splendid start.
There comes a film maybe once every 5 years that can make up for every bad film in the last 5 years. For comedy, this is one of them.
You do not have to be fond of Korean or east asian cinema to enjoy this, and I personally did not expect it to be as great as it was. Who could've known? Its been a very long time since I've seen a comedy fit so many elements of a great story into 2 hours. It wasn't just "ha ha" funny, it was hilarious and impartial to any type, age or people, a true comedy to the core.
It's a clean execution through and through. The characters are well developed and defined. The script's timing is punctual. Nothing spoken or seen is randomly injected or ejected; so as to either look or sound out of place and disconnect the story line. There's a strong consistency that leaves nothing unknown for too long, no deep lulls or delayed sense of wonder. Towards the middle and end, there's no sharp left turns completely void of audience validation. The music selection is melodic and well timed, complimenting their scenes. With all of this including the obvious fiction, it maintains a true to life feel, and resonates as a very human story.
The film accomplishes its mission as a comedy and more. It's a pleasantly refreshing supply of laughter that can only come from great casting, a solid team and hard work, I thank the cast for this gift. It's hard to step away from this film in search of something more, similar or greater. I look forward to everything Bae Se-Young (Bae Se-yeong ), Lee Byeong-heon, Noh Seungbo and Bang Ok Kyung have to offer in the future. The bar has been lifted, I have a strong "trailblazer" feeling about this film.
9/10
One star has not been earned for the following reasons
1. The boat scene was 2-3 minutes too long.
2. Some more explanation between the TV director and the success of the restaurant would've been helpful.
Living in North America, the film was free of any hype, so their was no expectation to lead to any amount of disappointment (Its harder to laugh when you're expecting to). Had hype been a factor, I doubt my review would be any different. I now see this wasn't the case in Korea, but East Asia does have a way of sensationalizing great films to "excessively" high points, which will eventually lead to negative reviews, many of which have found their way to IMDB.
Joyride (1997)
Lucky number 7
This film is good enough to purchase. Not a ground breaking film, but a well composed one, which makes it special considering how difficult it is to find those. The common film watcher will not enjoy this, no more that they would enjoy listening to His Name Alive on a Saturday evening. It would also help if the viewer understood the meaning/message of the story, or even resonated with the characters a little.
Pros
- I knew the script might've been an issue when I saw the writer, but when your acting cast is solid enough to support the greener members, it pans out. This would be a good example of when not to blame the writer, or the dialog, it's delivery.
- There's "flow", simply meaning that there were no long blank spots of "when is something going to happen" or large missing pieces of the story that makes you feel as if entire segments of the screenplay where chopped out at the last minute, making you say "I think there was suppose to be a connecting scene there". I hate it when films do this, and I've seen bigger budget film completely screw up because there are too many hands in the story and no one can keep it straight. This is why I always give Director/Writer films special attention, simply because it gives them the power they need to see their vision through to the end.
- Thank you Ivo Watts-Russell for the splendid OST, literally already had almost every song that played. I imagined a movie that ended with a Dif Juz top 10, just didn't think it was out there, but here it is. Well done. I always say that the music makes the movie. It's the element that people often ignore, but only when broken down do the realize how crucial it is.
Cons
- Wilson Cruz's acting came off very "Disney" (So scripted it was almost comic). I tried many times to excuse it, telling myself that this is how it was supposed to be, "this is his role", "this is what they wanted". I like to believe there's a measure of logic behind these things, not in this case.
- Christina Zilber's acting came off the same way, but with hints of "I'm not really an actor", which is understandable considering she isn't, actually Joyride could be considered her only feature. She wasn't horrible, just decent enough to tolerate.
- In some scenes, you would expect something to happen, and it does, but not the they way you were expecting, which is how it should've happened. An example of this is in the mirror shattering scene where she hits the ceiling light instead of throwing something onto the mirror causing a dramatic shatter... only to (moments later) hit the same mirror with her hand, causing several cracks, but no shatter. That was a very disappointing build up.
- There were a few scenes where a little extra dialog could've gone a long way, for example, one scene where someone ask J.T "have you seen/done/gone to xyz" and Tobey responds with a simple "not really", if you saw the movie, you would hear these missed opportunities, as if he meant to say "No, not recently", that one change would've added so much to the scene, and a few others where the dialog sounds as if it were cut short, not that what was already there wasn't good, it just could've been better.
I've seen some trash Sci-fi productions receive more praise than this film. I think people are upset because of the trailer, honestly, that trailer does no justice to the movie at all. It panders to people looking for a certain flavor, but doesn't deliver, merely because it can't. I only found this movie when reviewing the filmography relationships of the cast members, a tailored search that doesn't tend to disappoint me.
7/10