Booksmart is directed by Olivia Wilde and stars Kaitlin Dever and Beannie Feldstein as Amy and Molly, 2 high school girls who come to realise the day before graduation that they’ve never had any fun whilst being in school especially when they learn much of their class has also gone on to good colleges despite seeming to only want to party all the time so they decide its time to have some fun for themselves.
Booksmart is a lot of fun and I enjoyed myself quite a bit and the first big reason for that is Ms Dever and Ms Feldstein, the 2 young ladies have great chemistry and play off of each other very well and though they sometimes go over the top but they always have fun and I was fully on board for their journey as characters.
Secondly Ms Wilde does a great job in the directors chair and shows a lot of promise in this field which I hope she gets the chance to pursue more of in the future, she paces the film very well knowing when to let scenes breathe, how to time gags in the editing and when to take the editorial scissors to any improv moments which too often stop modern comedies dead in their tracks, the film has some terrific night photography that would’ve looked great on a big cinema screen but certainly delivered in that way when upscaled to 4K.
Also Ms Billie Lourd deserves some special recognition for her performance here as she steals every scene she is in and generates a lot of the films best laughs with not only her comic timing but also her physical comedy and watching her in this movie I was reminded of the kind of comic performance someone like Goldie Hawn gave in her heyday (Death Becomes Her being one example) and again I hope she goes on to great things in the future.
If I have some issues with the film it is at times the language does go a little over the top or at least it sounds over the top and a little loud in those times and also there are moments where it gets a bit predictable in terms of “Oh this will happen” and sure enough it did but those issues aren’t big enough to dent my overall enjoyment of the film.
And so that was Booksmart a film I had to wait a fair while to see but now that I have it was well worth the wait and along with Joker, Endgame, Rocketman and Broly is among my 5 favorites of the year, 3 and a half out of 5.
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Saturday, October 12, 2019
Film Review - Hustlers (2019)
Hustlers is written and directed by Ms Lorene Scarfaria and stars Constance Wu as Dorothy a young girl who takes a job at a Strip Club and meets Ramona (Jennifer Lopez) who shows her the ropes and teaches her the moves but when the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 hits the two of them team up with 2 other strippers from the club to try and fleece their high profile Wall Street customers and live It up for themselves.
Hustlers for me is a movie that was a bit of a mixed bag, don’t get me wrong I don’t think it’s a bad movie not at all but it was one that really wasn’t for me the more I think about it.
To start with the positives Ms Lopez is great here, the best she has been in a pretty long time and watching her play Ramona really took me back to watching Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street where you have this veteran actor sinking their teeth into a great character and every time they appear on screen you just can’t take your eyes off them, I hope she will enter the Oscar race but again given the subject nature of the film I’m not 100% certain she will get the nod but I’ll be happy if she does.
And also I like the portrait of this group of women that Ms Scarfaria paints, they come across as a close knit group of sisters who are doing things for themselves while also building a bond between each of them and I really liked those moments in the film as well though I was a little disappointed in the 2007 moments that no one was wearing a Kevin Rudd T-Shirt given that story about him that year.
But alas there is a big weak link in this movie for me and its sadly Ms Constance Wu who after enjoying her work in Crazy Rich Asians last year is not very good in this role I’m afraid, a lot of the time she just came across as being a little out of her depth and I never really bought the emotional journey her character goes through and again to go back to the Wall Street comparison her role is comparable to the Bud Fox role Charlie Sheen played in that film, the green horn who joins the mentor on the wild ride and then comes to question it and say “How much is Enough?” and whereas Mr Sheen could keep up with Mr Douglas this just feels like someone else is playing that role and the Michael Douglas equivalent is just walking all over them and as a result I didn’t feel as invested in the story as I wanted to be.
And so that was Hustlers and it’s a perfectly fine film that has some great writing and performances especially by Ms Lopez but Ms Wu didn’t do much for me performance wise and while many of the women in my session were enjoying themselves yesterday I was not one of them but hey these things happen, 2 out of 5.
Hustlers for me is a movie that was a bit of a mixed bag, don’t get me wrong I don’t think it’s a bad movie not at all but it was one that really wasn’t for me the more I think about it.
To start with the positives Ms Lopez is great here, the best she has been in a pretty long time and watching her play Ramona really took me back to watching Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street where you have this veteran actor sinking their teeth into a great character and every time they appear on screen you just can’t take your eyes off them, I hope she will enter the Oscar race but again given the subject nature of the film I’m not 100% certain she will get the nod but I’ll be happy if she does.
And also I like the portrait of this group of women that Ms Scarfaria paints, they come across as a close knit group of sisters who are doing things for themselves while also building a bond between each of them and I really liked those moments in the film as well though I was a little disappointed in the 2007 moments that no one was wearing a Kevin Rudd T-Shirt given that story about him that year.
But alas there is a big weak link in this movie for me and its sadly Ms Constance Wu who after enjoying her work in Crazy Rich Asians last year is not very good in this role I’m afraid, a lot of the time she just came across as being a little out of her depth and I never really bought the emotional journey her character goes through and again to go back to the Wall Street comparison her role is comparable to the Bud Fox role Charlie Sheen played in that film, the green horn who joins the mentor on the wild ride and then comes to question it and say “How much is Enough?” and whereas Mr Sheen could keep up with Mr Douglas this just feels like someone else is playing that role and the Michael Douglas equivalent is just walking all over them and as a result I didn’t feel as invested in the story as I wanted to be.
And so that was Hustlers and it’s a perfectly fine film that has some great writing and performances especially by Ms Lopez but Ms Wu didn’t do much for me performance wise and while many of the women in my session were enjoying themselves yesterday I was not one of them but hey these things happen, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - Gemini Man (2019)
Gemini Man is directed by Ang Lee and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and stars Will Smith as a professional assassin who after performing a hit on a man on a train decides to go into retirement but a mysterious organisation called Gemini headed up by a government agent played by Clive Owen thinks otherwise and sends the perfect weapon after him to kill him.
Gemini Man is very much a throwback to the kind of action films that made Mr Bruckheimer’s name as a producer, movies like Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys, The Rock and Con Air among others; these big action films with high concept ideas at the centre of them and Gemini Man is very much along those lines and I had fun with the film as a result as a silly action film.
Also performance wise it was pretty solid, Mr Smith seems to finally be giving a damn being in movies again with this and Aladdin this year and its certainly nice to see him go back to his mid to late 90s prime of Independence Day and Men in Black, Ms Mary Elizabeth Winstead was someone I enjoyed seeing again while also wishing she had a better career in front of her while Mr Benedict Wong is good fun as one of Smith’s former partners.
As for Mr Clive Owen well he’s just taking what he can at this stage sad to say but he was fine enough in the film also as for the younger Will Smith it’s probably the best use of de-aging technology I’ve seen in a movie yet as rarely did I think I was looking at a computer generated face, there was some good expression and emotion at times and there was one shot of the younger Will where he literally looked like he had just walked off the set of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
If I do have an issue with the movie its sadly the ending as the climax pretty much takes place in what looks like a Home Hardware Dogalogue store and it got a bit too silly for my liking though thankfully it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the Equalizer where Denzel basically lured all the bad guys to Bunnings Warehouse and killed them there and Mitre 10 getting a new log line “Come in here if you want to live.”
And so that was Gemini Man and it’s a fun silly high concept Bruckheimer action film that I enjoyed watching, 3 out of 5.
Gemini Man is very much a throwback to the kind of action films that made Mr Bruckheimer’s name as a producer, movies like Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys, The Rock and Con Air among others; these big action films with high concept ideas at the centre of them and Gemini Man is very much along those lines and I had fun with the film as a result as a silly action film.
Also performance wise it was pretty solid, Mr Smith seems to finally be giving a damn being in movies again with this and Aladdin this year and its certainly nice to see him go back to his mid to late 90s prime of Independence Day and Men in Black, Ms Mary Elizabeth Winstead was someone I enjoyed seeing again while also wishing she had a better career in front of her while Mr Benedict Wong is good fun as one of Smith’s former partners.
As for Mr Clive Owen well he’s just taking what he can at this stage sad to say but he was fine enough in the film also as for the younger Will Smith it’s probably the best use of de-aging technology I’ve seen in a movie yet as rarely did I think I was looking at a computer generated face, there was some good expression and emotion at times and there was one shot of the younger Will where he literally looked like he had just walked off the set of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
If I do have an issue with the movie its sadly the ending as the climax pretty much takes place in what looks like a Home Hardware Dogalogue store and it got a bit too silly for my liking though thankfully it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the Equalizer where Denzel basically lured all the bad guys to Bunnings Warehouse and killed them there and Mitre 10 getting a new log line “Come in here if you want to live.”
And so that was Gemini Man and it’s a fun silly high concept Bruckheimer action film that I enjoyed watching, 3 out of 5.
Friday, October 4, 2019
Film Review - Joker (2019)
Joker is directed by Todd Phillips and stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a man living with mental illness in 1981 Gotham City while that City deals with a Garbage Strike stinking up the city circumstances it seems keep piling up and up and up on Arthur and there’s only so much a person can take before they snap.
Joker is an interesting movie and it’s one that actually I enjoyed quite a bit for these reasons:
- Firstly Mr Phoenix’s performance is as good as I had heard it was, the way he distorts his body, his physical body language, the way he distorts his face and the way he uses his eyes to convey emotion are all terrific to watch and you never get bored watching him act in this movie and like with Mr Pitt in Ad Astra I hope he has a Best Actor nomination coming his way.
Another performance I enjoyed in this movie is by Mr Robert De Niro as a late night talk show host and while his casting was most likely a nod to Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film the King of Comedy I was actually reminded of a former Australian radio host Derryn Hinch and the more I think about De Niro’s performance I could easily have seen someone like Mr Hinch in that part.
- Secondly the film has some great craftsmanship on show and I want to start with the cinematography by Mr Lawrence Sher, there are some great high camera angles, use of space with the large buildings like the old theatre showing Modern Times and the way the overall framing is done it made me think of an old Warner Home Video release of the film if such a thing ever existed plus there is a great musical score by Ms Hildur Guðnadóttir which like the Dark Knight in 2008 uses a lot of strings and its really effective with some great cues.
- And lastly I loved the portrayal of Gotham City in this movie as it really feels like what Christopher Nolan was building in Batman Begins the idea of Gotham as this corrupt, downtrodden, rotten cesspool of a city that was not only losing its way but also going downhill very fast unless someone like the Batman came along to clean it up and while the film has some ties to the Batman universe they are very subtle and I thought well done.
If I do have an issue with the film it’s that the Arthur material and the Joker material don’t quite mesh together the way that I wish it had, the more I think about the film and those 2 sides of it they have a different feel to it and they don’t quite go from one to the other in a way that is seamless they feel like here’s Arthur and here’s the Joker and that transition could have been better I feel.
And so that was Joker and its an interesting film that I enjoyed quite a bit but I can also see why others will not respond to it, this is a dark movie rated MA15+ for a reason and while those like myself really liked that about it I can see why for some it will make them uncomfortable and they won’t like it and I fully understand that, 3 and a half out of 5.
Joker is an interesting movie and it’s one that actually I enjoyed quite a bit for these reasons:
- Firstly Mr Phoenix’s performance is as good as I had heard it was, the way he distorts his body, his physical body language, the way he distorts his face and the way he uses his eyes to convey emotion are all terrific to watch and you never get bored watching him act in this movie and like with Mr Pitt in Ad Astra I hope he has a Best Actor nomination coming his way.
Another performance I enjoyed in this movie is by Mr Robert De Niro as a late night talk show host and while his casting was most likely a nod to Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film the King of Comedy I was actually reminded of a former Australian radio host Derryn Hinch and the more I think about De Niro’s performance I could easily have seen someone like Mr Hinch in that part.
- Secondly the film has some great craftsmanship on show and I want to start with the cinematography by Mr Lawrence Sher, there are some great high camera angles, use of space with the large buildings like the old theatre showing Modern Times and the way the overall framing is done it made me think of an old Warner Home Video release of the film if such a thing ever existed plus there is a great musical score by Ms Hildur Guðnadóttir which like the Dark Knight in 2008 uses a lot of strings and its really effective with some great cues.
- And lastly I loved the portrayal of Gotham City in this movie as it really feels like what Christopher Nolan was building in Batman Begins the idea of Gotham as this corrupt, downtrodden, rotten cesspool of a city that was not only losing its way but also going downhill very fast unless someone like the Batman came along to clean it up and while the film has some ties to the Batman universe they are very subtle and I thought well done.
If I do have an issue with the film it’s that the Arthur material and the Joker material don’t quite mesh together the way that I wish it had, the more I think about the film and those 2 sides of it they have a different feel to it and they don’t quite go from one to the other in a way that is seamless they feel like here’s Arthur and here’s the Joker and that transition could have been better I feel.
And so that was Joker and its an interesting film that I enjoyed quite a bit but I can also see why others will not respond to it, this is a dark movie rated MA15+ for a reason and while those like myself really liked that about it I can see why for some it will make them uncomfortable and they won’t like it and I fully understand that, 3 and a half out of 5.
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