Tag: John David Washington

2023 In Film: Day Eight (The Very Good)

On By troubledproductionsIn Year round upLeave a comment

Anatomy Of A Fall

Ups: Genuinely compelling.

Likeable characters

Flows beautifully.

Downs: Feels a bit too ITV at times.

Best Moment: The courtroom scenes themselves are sensationally tense.

Worst Moment(s): A moment that’s not there; the year between the event and the trial. I’d have liked to have seen more from that.

Best Performer: Sandra Huller

Opening: Sandra’s interview keeps getting interrupted by her husband playing a flamenco cover of a 50 Cent song. Rather damn tense, but doesn’t really set up the genre until later.

Closing: The court case is adjourned. It does seem to end rather quickly, with no idea of what happens next.

Best Line: Sometimes a couple is kind of a chaos and everybody is lost. Sometimes we fight together and sometimes we fight alone, and sometimes we fight against each other, that happens

Original Review here

Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 3

Ups: Genuinely emotional.

Funny.

An utterly detestable villain

Good cast chemistry

Downs: The music isn’t as good as the previous entries.

Some issues with the tone.

It really is time that the MCU started advancing its overall narrative.

Best Moment: The hallway fight scene. One of the best action set pieces in the MCU

Worst Moment: The post-credits scene is a waste of time, even by phase four MCU standards.

Best Performer: Chukwudi Iwuji

Opening: The group are attacked at their new headquarters. Standard Guardians opening, but not as good as has been done before.

Closing: Everyone goes their separate ways; still alive. Because Marvel isn’t going to kill any characters now.

Best Line: Someday I’m gonna make great machines that fly. And me and my friends are gonna go flying together, into the forever and beautiful sky.

Original Review here

Holy Spider

Ups: Shockingly violent.

The police officer going from “I’m a sensitive nice guy” to “Well what if I don’t want to leave? Slut” is painfully real to see play out. His wife blaming the women is also up there.

Ali Abbasi NEEDED to tell this story.

Downs: Some of the subtitles haven’t been translated properly.

The editing isn’t too great in some places.

Best Moment: The brief look of pride on his son’s face when he’s talking about strangling people

Worst Moment: When she runs for safety, it cuts too quickly to really be effective.

Best Performer: Mehdi Bajestani

Opening: “Every Man Shall Meet What He Wishes To Avoid”. Then a naked woman doing her hair, with her back covered in bruises. Few more random scenes, then footage of 9/11. It does everything it can to cause emotions.

Closing: He gets hanged. He thought he was going to get away with it but turns out his friends had sold him out. I like the fact that he died afraid, and the irony of him being killed by lack of oxygen is nice to see. That should have been how it ended, as it was, it carried on to her on a couch watching videos. Disappointing. Or so I thought. But then she watches videos of his son, and he’s talking about how he plans to continue his dad’s work; demonstrating how his dad killed them, like he was doing something great. Demonstrating on his sister. Thankfully just a soft recreation, not actually killing her. But it’s still horrific to watch in terms of what it implies about societal bullshit.

Best Line: “Prostitution is a societal problem. You don’t sell your body on the street unless you’re poor and desperate”. I think that line actually leads a bit of nuance to the guy’s belief and helps you realise that he has a genuine reason for wanting to end prostitution.

Original Review here

Joy Ride

Ups: Very funny

Utterly filthy.

Great performances.

Unapologetically Asian.

Downs: Some scenes go on a bit too long.

Some side characters feel wasted.

Best Moment: The video recording from her birth mother.

Worst Moment: The WAP scene, it drags ever so slightly towards the end of it.

Best Performer: Ashley Park

Opening: The two characters meet. A sweet and funny scene that showcases their relationship, and give the parents some depth two. One set are nervous and fed up of not being thought of as American, and the other set of parents just want a friend for their daughter. It also features a racist being injured and sworn at.

Closing: Simple “one year from now”. Nice, and doesn’t sequel hook.

Best Line: My vagina is the devil and she’s here to stay!

Original Review here

M3gan

Ups: Very funny

Has a superb Chekov’s Gun involving a giant robot.

Weirdly sweet at times.

Downs: There’s a few moments where the editing is a bit off. Most of the time it’s fine. But there’s a moment in the office where it’s a bit sudden and disorientating.

Best Moment: When M3gan is being disconnected. You know what’s going to happen, it’s obvious, but it’s still incredibly tense trying to figure out WHEN it will happen. It’s the cinematic equivalent of Buckaroo, only with slightly more death.

Worst Moment: The bits which aren’t in there. Like, what happened to certain people? And what impact does this have on the company?

Best Performer: Violet McGraw. Although I did think she was Ava Acres until about five minutes ago.

Opening: A very cutesy/disturbing advert for a fictional toy. Followed by a car crash which kills the parents of Cady. Her parents are actually shown as fully realised characters, so it doesn’t feel like it’s wasting time.

Closing: The not-Alexa turns itself on, implying M3gan is now in that. That’s how you do a sequel hook: there’s potential for it to continue, but it still feels like a complete story. It CAN have a sequel, but it doesn’t NEED one. Although I will be curious how they’ll have an excuse to keep the same design for M3gan if they do continue. Her look was a big part of her charm.

Best Line: Cady, you lost your parents. The worst thing that could’ve happened to you in this world happened. And it is so unfair, and there is nothing anyone can say to make sense of it. Not even M3gan. I am so sorry. I should’ve talked to you about what happened. I didn’t know what to say, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. But she’s not a solution. She’s just a distraction. I can’t promise you that these feelings you’re feeling are ever gonna go away. But I can promise you that you’ll get through it. We both will.

Original Review here

Quiz Lady

Ups: Funny.

It’s nice to have something just designed to make you feel warm and fuzzy.

Good subversions of the expected character types.

Downs: Predictable.

Could do more.

Doesn’t use the music available to it in the best way.

Best Moment: The quiz show itself.

Worst Moment: The Ben Franklin-themed hotel seems like an idea that was hilarious on paper but didn’t really add anything on screen.

Best Performer: Awkwafina.

Opening: Anne sits down to watch a quiz show in 1996 as an argument goes on around her. Her older sister is on the phone nearby and reaches for the remote. I assumed she was going to turn the volume down so she could talk on the phone, but she turned it up instead so her sister could hear it. It’s weirdly sweet. Helps that the child actress they got looks SOOOO much like Awkwafina.

Closing: Ends exactly how you think it would end. But then you get a “what happened to everybody” montage which is hilarious.

Best Line: “Linguini became a social media star, making $200k per post. This makes him richer than most families and proves capitalism has gone too far”

Original Review here

Rye Lane

Ups: Very believable relationship between the two leads.

Adorkable

Very creatively shot

Downs: The traditional third-act argument doesn’t feel real, and the grand gesture feels underwhelming.

Best Moment: The dinner with Dom’s ex.

Worst Moment: The argument.

Best Performer: David Jonsson

Opening: The meet-cute. Happens very early on and I’m all for it. Actually, that’s another point, this film is remarkably paced.

Closing: They end up together. Obviously.

Best Line: So apparently there are two types of people in this world. The ones who wave at boats, and the ones who hate joy.

Original Review here

The Creator

Ups: Looks incredible.

How was it done on this budget?

Gets you asking questions.

Downs: Missing THAT iconic needle drop.

Important plot points are glossed over too quickly.

Best Moment: The reveal that the disaster that wiped out humanity was human error, not AI. Changes everything.

Worst Moment: 3 seconds later when you realise that the reveal has changed nothing.

Best Performer: John David Washington

Opening: Newsposition. Goes from real news to fictional seamlessly and makes the world seem real.

Closing: The two main human characters die but the world is saved. Cliche but works.

Best Line: Go make love to yourself. Go make love to your mother.

Original Review here

The Marvels

Ups: Fun.

Iman Vellani is a delight.

Perfect chemistry.

Good visuals.

FINALLY starts to set up the next stage.

Downs: Villain is defeated too easily.

Wastes the swapping gimmick.

Best Moment: “Memories”. Just absurd.

Worst Moment: The singing planet. Mainly because it could have been sooooo much better.

Best Performer: Iman Vellani

Opening: Standard “villain finds weapon” opening.

Closing: Confirmation of X-Men/young avengers.

Best Line: Okay, no more touching shit. Especially glowing, mysterious shit.

Original Review here

The Creator (2023) Review

On By troubledproductionsIn ReviewLeave a comment

As a war between humanity and AI rages on; grieving widow Joshua (John David Washington) has been tasked with retrieving a weapon which could turn the tide of the war in favour of AI; a weapon which turns out to be a small child.

I’m gonna say this now; The Creator is probably the best movie I’ve seen all year. It’s not my favourite (at the moment Missing still occupies that spot). I really can’t see it being beaten, I haven’t seen a film this good since EEAAO back in May 2022. It’s difficult to explain just how incredible this is. Like all great films, it leaves you asking questions. Questions about the future of humanity, questions about yourself, questions about your country. There’s also another question it forces you to ask:

How the hell is this possible?

Take a quick look at the trailer (hurry back though). That was done on a $80million budget. For reference; that’s the same as the budget for the Michael Jordan Shoe-opic Air. I don’t know how Gareth Edwards managed it but I can only assume witchcraft. It looks incredible, absolutely astounding. There are zero moments where it doesn’t look real (although there is one moment where the geography of the scene could be improved to help clarify things). Considering the amount of effects etc. that must be needed for this to work; that truly is a testament to the talent of Edwards and his team.

Edwards has done a great job in giving The Creator its style. It’s like a Vietnam War movie mixed with Blade Runner and made by Steven Spielberg. Even that description is underselling it. There is nothing else like this out there at the moment, and that’s both a shame and a good thing. I would like to see more films made like this, but I can’t see how anybody can do this better. The performances are perfect throughout; I still think the general public is sleeping on John David Washington; which is a weird thing to say about someone who was the lead in a Nolan movie. But it doesn’t feel like his name gets brought up when people discuss great actors, and it really should. When people bring up who’s going to be the lead in a new franchise, John David Washington should be among the first names on many lists. The supporting cast do their job too; Allison Janey manages a character which shows a bit more depth than she’s usually allowed, Gemma Chan maximises her screen-time perfectly, Ken Watanabe does what he usually does and is great at it, and Ralph Ineson more than holds his own amongst them. Madeleine Yuna Voyles is tremendous given her young age, especially considering how much of the humour and emotion is based on her performance.

The music is comprised of some odd choices, and it is missing that ONE song that you will associate with it. The soundtrack is really standing on the shoulders of the giants of Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, so a lot of the choices feel like tributes to other films rather than truly unique choices. The Hans Zimmer score is pretty damn good, but won’t be something that will stick in your head like the visuals will.

The script itself is probably the weakest part. I mean, it’s still VERY good but there are a few really important plot points that are glossed over quite quickly, one in particular should be a complete game changer for motivations but is not really mentioned or referenced again.

Overall, I was impressed with this. I realised very early on that I was going to rate this highly; the opening scene is one of the best scenes in terms of establishing the film universe that I’ve seen in a long time. It g goes from what I assume is real news footage to film-produced news seamlessly and quickly establishes everything you need to know. I watched this two days ago as a secret preview screening at the cinema, and I’m already tempted to go watch it again. If there’s any justice; this will be one of the biggest films of the year, it deserves nothing less.

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

On By troubledproductionsIn ReviewLeave a comment

This is a hard movie to review. It’s based on a true story, yet plays INCREDIBLY fast and loose with historical accuracy, not just slightly either, the year the film takes place is changed by almost a decade. Entire characters are invented for the purpose of the film, and some people have been made out to be a lot worse than they actually are (one of the fellow cops is portrayed as massively racist when in real life he was at worst incompetent) which is kind of bad when you realise a lot of people from this are still alive. That seems kind of mean, but it doesn’t affect how much I enjoyed this film. Well, I say “enjoy”, I didn’t really enjoy this, but I did like it a lot. I mean, yeah the pacing was a bit weird. It’s also very long, but it has a lot to say. This film gets you to ask a lot of very important questions about race, politics, and Steve Buscemi having a brother.

For those unaware: this is about a black police officer going undercover at the KKK. Seriously, that’s it, and it’s based on a true story, which is just as brilliant as it sounds. There’s a great moment in this which I KNOW really happened as I remember reading about it years ago: when the guy asked the Grand Wizard of the KKK (no, that’s actually what the leader is called, stop laughing) how he knew he wasn’t black, the Great Boy-Witch replied that black men pronounce letters and words a certain way.

I highly recommend seeing this film, the script is great, and the acting is just as good. I think it’s fair to say that it won’t be too long before John David Washington eclipses his father’s fame. Adam Driver continues to be incredibly good, and Topher Grace does his best to make David Duke somewhat likeable, in a role which definitely messed with his head. It seems like everybody in this film is at their best, Spike Lee really knows how to get great performances out of people. The writing is also really good, it would be so easy to make the KKK cartoonish pricks, but the script makes them seem like actual people. There’s a moment in the film where a member of the klan is lovingly embracing his wife as they discuss killing black people. In a way it’s kind of sweet, here’s a couple who clearly love each other, talking about what they love. It’s just a shame that what they love is being awful, awful people.

The main cause for my non-enjoyment was the ending. It had a great ending; an ending which is funny, completes the narrative and not the story (big fan of this as it means you feel the characters as existing outside of the film), and to the point. It then goes on, and on. It then starts to show modern klan rallies, the alt-right, and Hitler Simpson himself, culminating in people talking about the death of Heather Heyer, the young woman who was run over by a white supremacist/terrorist dickbag at a rally last year. It’s an incredibly poignant and sweet ending to the film, but it’s also really depressing as it makes you realise that whilst the klan itself are a relic of the 70’s, the attitudes and opinions they had are stronger today than I can ever remember (and they are, before you had Nazi’s as villains the reaction would be “bit cliche”, now it’s “typical leftie cuck SJW bitch. Making nazi’s look bad”).

cca

It shocks you. It cuts you to the bone. But more than anything; it inspires the hell out of you. This is not so much a film, this is a fucking rallying call, to all those who oppose the shit-heap that the world is in danger of becoming. This will light a fire underneath all decent people, and it’s REALLY fucking disappointing that it’s needed. But it’s the perfect way to end it, it makes you realise the real danger that people like that pose to civility.