Reviews

Trey Edward Shults shows us that he is one of the most promising directors working today by showcasing some masterful work in Waves. His direction is fantastic from the way that he uses the cinematography to immerse you by using many close ups and orbiting shots, this cinematography, the excellent writing and the strong performances from everyone in the film giving a great ensemble performance get us to instantly connect with these characters this is especially seen from Kelvin Harrison Jr, Taylor Russell and Sterling K Brown who are all mesmerising in this film, they feel real, they act in many ways that everyone does making the audience see themselves to some standard in each character. The way the story is told is so interesting and refreshing, with the first half having a Safdie brothers feel to it with how stressful it feels, climaxing in emotional devastation, and the second half being a road to redemption and togetherness, also the soundtrack used throughout the duration of the film is excellent and enhances these scenes so much.

The only critique I can see is that the beginning of the second half of the film is a little slow and i think that was used to help us gather ourselves after the highly emotional scenes that precede it however, it does pick up again and further immerses us again.

Overall, Waves joins a massive list of fantastic films that have come from A24, this film is emotionally devastating and will leave you speechless after the credits are finished, the performances are fantastic and Trey Edward Shults provides us with some of the best scenes put to screen. this is a must watch as I feel this can impact a lot of people and shock you the way it did with me.

Honey Boy is a film I was fascinated by, with the way it was made and the subject matter behind it. The story of a young Shia Labeouf and the relationship with his father influencing him as an adult. The performances from Noah Jupe, Lucas Hedges and Shia Labeouf are fantastic, all giving committed performances that will draw out emotions, the direction from Alma Har'el was solid as well as Labeoufs writing, as it felt personal and gave us a glimpse into his life that he didn't need to show us, so I commend him on being brave enough to do that.

However, I did see some flaws with the film that didn't quite hook me into it as much as I wanted, its strange but I think showing us real authenticity at times doesn't translate well into films and it felt like that here at times. I also wanted to connect to the characters in the film more but I just couldn't, I wanted to see more from his time in rehab as I thought Lucas Hedges was amazing in his role and I wanted to see more. The 3rd act felt rushed and seemed like it needed an extra 15 minutes to wrap up the plot lines it created nicely.

Overall, Honey Boy is a good film with some great performances and some brave writing from Shia Labeouf, I just didn't connect with it as much as I would have liked with a rushed 3rd act made me not sing its praises, I do recommend audiences watch this film as it gives you a glimpse of what a childhood celebrity's life can be like, which is definitely fascinating and worth the watch on that alone.

Da 5 Bloods, feels like an awfully relevant film to release right now, providing some powerful imagery and showcasing immersive storytelling. The film has all the makings of a Spike Lee Joint from the high quality cinematography that makes use of a diverse range of film and adds something genuine to the story, as well as provide Oscar Worthy Editing that transitions through aspect ratios smoothly. Spike seems to be on a roll with making some of his most powerful films off the back of his superb Blackkklansman. The performances in the film are Oscar worthy making you feel empathetic to the cause as well as giving insight into the unfairness African Americans faced when it came to the Vietnam War, the two notable performances in this film being Delroy Lindo and Chadwick Boseman, I loved both performances and will be some of my favourites for the year, also Jonathan Majors gives a noteworthy performance as well. The writing for this film is powerful and when needed, builds tension, relationships and the conflicts the characters go through during this film. I will also say the use of real footage throughout the film is extremely powerful and adds an extra layer showing the problems that the USA has faced throughout its history right to this day.

If I were to pick out a flaw with this film it would have to be the score which was quite forgettable and at times didn't match the moment that was presented on film, and at times it could have a minor impact on the scene itself, which was quite disappointing as i found the Blackkklansman score to be memorable and matched the style of the film really well.

Overall, Da 5 Bloods is a film that is extremely relevant and powerful, showing that Spike Lee is still in great form as a director 40 years in and is maybe better than ever. The use of the Vietnam war felt appropriate and the characters felt authentic. The performances were fantastic, and most technical aspects to the film were at an Oscar Level. This is a film that everyone should try.

Motherless Brooklyn is a film that generally had a lot of things going for it such as: Great performances all round, especially from Edward Norton as a detective with tourettes, great cinematography, Costumes that engage you with the time and place that the film is set, and authentic production design. These elements are all excellent and shows that Edward Norton is a capable director who makes something with effort and passion which isn't seen all the time, these aspects feel so engaging in the first act and through many parts of the final act. These elements show that he has a lot of potential and I can't wait to see what he directs next.

However, the film has a lot of issues which unfortunately bring it down, the film is way too long for the type of film that it is, a Noir detective drama/thriller such as this had enough content to go for an hour and a half, however the film exceeds two and a half hours making it feel like a drag to get through especially in the second act. The film also tried to cover a lot of things and moments that seemed to weigh down the quality of the film, and make me feel confused for a number of moments and revelations. These could have been more impactful with a shorter run time and tighter plot lines that give the audience a meaningful connection to the characters and the actions they set to do throughout the film.

Overall, Motherless Brooklyn is a film that had a lot of potential and showcased a number of promising aspects of Edward Norton as a director, however, a messy second act, a stretched run time, and too much expository dialogue rather than use visual storytelling weigh the film down and decrease its quality making it tough to get through at times, fans of this genre will find something to love here but its far from being a fantastic film.

The Last Dance is a documentary that flawlessly tells the definitive story of the success of the Chicago Bulls during the 90s and the rise of Michael Jordan. They manage to get many of the players and staff that were on these teams to give us their perspective on certain events and that is where the documentary shines, as we get these perspectives we learn more about the struggles this team was facing from the beginning of Michael Jordan's career right to the teams 6th championship.

The documentary not only gives us different perspectives, it also tells us the back stories of key players on these teams and how it moulded them into the players they are now, with the most in depth of these being Michael Jordan's. We learn about his upbringing, his friends, his loved ones and the rise of his career. The Documentary is honest and shows moments when Jordan was mean spirited to his team mates, and the disagreements he and the rest of the team had with the organisation.

The Documentary tells a well a structured story across the 10 episodes by showing us a small amount of Jordan's last season with the Bulls and then flashes back to an earlier time. This was very effective in showing what the 6th title meant to the organisation and giving us a feeling that every moment the team had lead up to that 1998 season.

Overall, The Last Dance is potentially the greatest sports documentary ever put to screen, telling an honest structured story, that gives this generation a genuine inside look to how great the Chicago Bulls during this era were as well as the excellence that Michael Jordan had showcased throughout his career. I would recommend this to anyone even remotely interested in basketball as it is an enjoyable watch that is highly informative.

Vivarium, is an intriguing film that builds a lot of interesting pieces throughout its story, the performances from Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots are solid. the films biggest strength comes from its world building, we see a story built on imagery and careful cinematography. the concept it has is very unique and I liked the way it was explored throughout its first two acts, building a tense atmosphere and surrounding us in an environment that is sickly perfect, as the director states: The area that the characters are trapped in is one which humans dream of: A nice quiet neighbourhood, and a family, however it lacks the love and soul that the experiences of human life bring to these places, which creates that eerie atmosphere. The director succeeds in implementing that vision and praise must be given for that.

However, the thing that truly annoys me about this film is its third act, it seems to be a film that stacks all these dominoes and you're waiting for all of them to fall, but they never really do, leaving us with a lacklustre ending, where it seems the director was trying to leave the story up for interpretation, but in the meantime, it doesn't feel as if it has earned that right yet, as they don't really give you enough information to go off to give a decent interpretation. I appreciate the risk that the film was attempting to take but it falls short of being truly captivating and giving us something to spend hours talking about, instead giving us an experience that was decent but doesn't transcend that barrier.

Overall, Vivarium has decent performances, cinematography and world building but the storytelling falters, making me underwhelmed and wishing it had been just a little bit better, where it could have been truly great. Nevertheless an OK film albeit a forgettable one.

Joe Talbot's The Last Black Man in San Francisco is close to being one of A24s best films, the opening is phenomenal and it carries that momentum throughout the whole film. The score is one of the best I have heard and the cinematography is fantastic. The screenplay is also great providing so many twists and turns within two hours and covering all these plot points so seamlessly, and giving you a lot of emotional payoff that is tear inducing. The performances from the two leads Jimmie Fails and Jonathon Majors are both Oscar worthy.

This film manages to cover deep themes as well, and moves between a few topics that are interconnected with the characters, it manages to implement these themes so seamlessly using themes such as: How we treat others, how we perceive people, and a place being intertwined with your identity so well that it makes the characters instantly relatable. Also the production design and costume design are all gorgeous to look at, and they tie together with the cinematography so well.

Overall, The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a criminally underrated film that deserved a lot more attention than it got. I implore you to watch this film and you won't be disappointed, as the passionate film making shown and the phenomenal performances will wow you from start to finish.

Honestly I quite enjoyed the Aeronauts, it is a film that has so many quality elements to it such as: really strong sound, and cinematography with some excellent shots of the balloon in the sky and showing off the beauty of Earth, it also has some great performances by both Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones who show that they are extremely compatible together like the theory of everything. I found the film to run exactly as long as I wanted it to and it delivered on the aspects I wanted it to like its use of tension of the balloon being in the sky where if something goes wrong there is no chance for survival. It also feels like a easy film to recommend for anyone who is looking for something to watch if they have amazon prime.

However the film isn't perfect there is a lot of cliche's throughout the film, and some (not all) of the flashbacks feel like annoying distractions from the events that are happening in the balloon, also whilst I didn't mind the revisionist history, as a movie is just that, a movie not a documentary, however the fact that in real life there were two men in the balloon and they changed that to having one women and one man due to a feminist agenda will annoy some viewers, just know that the film doesn't feel too preachy either and the moment where it does happen feel few and far between.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time watching the Aeronauts it feels like a film that gives you a good time and that's it. It doesn't feel like its trying to be a masterpiece and that is OK, it gave me the feelings I wanted when watching a film about two people in a hot air balloon really high in the sky and is a movie I would recommend to others.

The Way Back is a movie that is quite enjoyable especially if you are a fan of sports movies and love basketball. Ben Affleck gives a strong performance which feels very personal to him. This element heightens the film even more, it has a lot of things that you would find in the sports genre such as: Motivational scenes which make you feel good and make you want to support the characters. It doesn't oversimplify the game of basketball as well, the way they use strategies and plays feel like something you would actually see in a huddle of a high school basketball game and as a former assistant coach for a school basketball team I found that to be a really cool element. The way it handles the drama aspects outside of basketball and the real reason as to why the character is an alcoholic I found to be quite compelling and it felt quite emotional at times.

The film has a couple of drawbacks with the main one being that this is a little too cliched at times, a lot of tropes that you would see in sports films happen in this one, and I noticed that a lot of elements on the coaches interactions with the players were a little too similar to coach carter, which was a film that handled those elements better. Also the acting apart from Affleck for the most part was sub par, especially in the first act. The run time felt a little too long as well due to the fact that there were a lot of sub plots, I think it could have been better if they would cut some of them out to create a more tighter storyline.

Overall, I had a good time with the way back, i think if you're not a fan of the genre you wont find anything new here. However if you love sports, basketball and typical films in this genre you will have a good time like I did, and the awesome Ben Affleck performance is a bonus.

Let me just start this review by saying that this film is near perfect. Robert Eggers, writer and director of the Witch, which was a promising debut feature but showed a film maker that hadn't quite refined his craft yet. This film shows him at his best. The Lighthouse is one of the most brilliantly shot films I have ever seen. Its use of Black and White and a 1.19:1 Aspect ratio just makes you immersed in the world and setting that Robert Eggers has created, giving us some excellent writing by using a form of old sailor talk English that just puts you into this atmosphere. The production design is fantastic and having it filmed at a real location further enhances the experience.

The performances in this film are also flawless. Starting with Willem Dafoe who completely disappears into this character giving us a character you feel exists in this world and only this world, he also gives some fantastic monologues that are bone chilling and engaging. Robert Pattinson absolutely nails his performance here too giving us his best performance ever by far, his monologues are just as equally bone chilling and engaging. Both of these characters lead by these two knockout performances take us on an emotional roller coaster, at some points you sympathise with them, at other points you hate them, which only shows that these performances are of the highest standard.

Overall, The Lighthouse is a great film that will require 2 or 3 viewings as there is a lot of things to interpret, but that won't matter as the career defining performances from Willem Dafoe, and Robert Pattinson will transport you to one of the most intriguing, thought provoking and atmospheric worlds in cinema. Robert Eggers fantastic writing and direction give us an experience that is very unique and will never be re created again as it feels like something only Robert Eggers could make.

Birds of Prey: and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn, is a movie I had high hopes for but it fell flat. I will start off this review with the positive aspects first such as: Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn was a great casting and continues to be where I think she gives a better performance then her one in Suicide Squad, and Ewan Mcgregor plays a decent version of Black Mask. The use of colours and costumes I thought were great and I found some moments of entertainment through some of its action sequences.

However, This film has a lot of problems, most of the performances in this film are very shoddy, especially from Rosie Perez who is a walking cliche' as Renee Montoya (and I know that's what they were going for but it just doesn't work}, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress who gives us some very cringey at times acting, and I think some of this has something to do with the screenplay which I also think is average at best. The humour that they're going for doesn't work at all I chuckled maybe once, and it was the same for my theatre. They also butchered Victor Zsasz which I found extremely disappointing as I was looking forward to his inclusion in the DCEU, the way he was portrayed was nothing like how he is in the comics and it seems like he is just trying to be some knock off version of the Joker. Also why is the film titled Birds of Prey? This is a Harley Quinn Movie, just like the trailers the Birds of Prey are barely in it and when they were they had small glimpses of being cool characters but for the most part they were some of the most cliched early 2000's era superhero characters I have seen since that era.

Overall, I found Birds of Prey to be a disappointment I came into this film very optimistic but got let down, due to the fact that this films writing was just plain bad. If Margot Robbie's and Ewan Mcgregor's performances weren't as great as what they were with the nice compliments of the characters costumes it would have been completely boring and cliched garbage.

Parasite, is Bong Joon-Ho at his best, I was at first sceptical when I was about to see this movie because of all the praise it had gotten, I was afraid that the expectations that were placed on it were too high and I would come out of the film disappointed. I couldn't have been more wrong, Parasite is fantastic, it nails a lot of technical aspects such as: Cinematography,editing and its production design which is right up there as some of the best production design this year. These technical aspects however are just complimenting the excellent writing by Bong Joon-Ho who manages to flawlessly ease us from one genre of film to the next. It covers comedy, drama, horror/thriller, and also manages to dive into social themes like class systems. The way it does all of this is so subtle, it doesn't go on a rant talking about the way people act when in different classes, it shows us, which I think is a lot more powerful. It doesn't villanize any one class, both the rich and poor people in this film have their good and bad moments making it feel even more authentic. The acting is also really strong I can't put my finger on one performance as it does feel like a strong ensemble effort.

On the negative end however, some of the actions made by a character near the end of the film (Specifically the birthday party sequence), I just didn't agree that this would be something the character would do, I still found the actions performed to be entertaining, I just think this character could have made a different decision and would have as well.

Overall, Parasite is a very well directed, written and acted film, which is enhanced even further by its excellent, cinematography, production design and editing. With great performances from an excellent ensemble, Parasite is one of the greatest foreign films ever made and well and truly deserves its Oscar praise.

Uncut gems is a film I wouldn't recommend if you were stressed and are looking for a movie to calm you down, Uncut Gems does the complete opposite giving you an extremely anxiety inducing experience. However the Safdie Brothers evolve their directing style from Good time which was also anxiety inducing, however, Uncut Gems uses it so much more frequently and efficiently, making the Safdies some of the best Writers/ Directors to look out for in the future giving us a film that makes you feel stressed and holds on until the film ends. The performances are also excellent lead by Adam Sandler who gives his best performance yet, it feels like he disappears into this role which only helps the film. Kevin Garnett surprisingly gives a good performance also.

I do see a couple of critiques for the film however, such as: There are some moments in the middle that dragged on for too long. It also starts off a little messy and the fast anxiety inducing pace startles you for the opening act which means you spend some time figuring out whats what, but when it all starts to click, which I found it did around 10 minutes into the film I was immersed and ready to go on the ride that the Safdies prepared for us.

Overall, Uncut Gems is the epitome of anxiety inducing cinema heralded by an Oscar Nomination worthy performance from Adam Sandler, and also showing that the Safdie Brothers have a very promising future with this genre of film that they have mastered. If you're someone who wants to watch a movie to relax I wouldn't recommend this but if you enjoy quality cinema no matter what genre it is, this is one for you.

I found the Peanut Butter Falcon to be an engaging and heartwarming drama that presents some excellent performances from the three leads: Shia Labeouf, Dakota Johnson and Zack Gottsagen who gives an excellent debut performance, the themes it tackles along the run time of the film are handled with care and in the right way, that only further enhances the film. I found the lead characters to all be relatable, and likeable all having different goals and personalities, who build relationships over the small things that link them together, which shows the strength of the writing behind the film.

However, I found that some decisions made for the film, like having a pair of antagonists to be weak at some points, I felt as if the drama between the characters, their struggles and the continuously evolving relationships to be enough to carry the film to the point where I felt that having antagonists felt pointless in some ways. I also thought the ending was rushed and felt a little abrupt.

Overall, I found the Peanut Butter Falcon to be such a heartwarming surprising film that I believe more people need to see. Apart from a couple of flaws that could have been ironed out I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who wants something new to watch.

Underwater, was a film I found particularly frustrating as it seems to build a nice atmosphere and do some interesting things in its opening scene, it builds a solid foundation for our protagonist played by Kristen Stewart and gives us an interesting world. The best part of this film is most definitely her performance which is very good and multi layered.

However there are so many things that make this movie such a disappointment, I found most of the supporting cast particularly frustrating, especially TJ millers character who can't help but crack jokes every single line he has, even in scenes that are supposed to be emotional for all the characters involved. The film thinks its being scary but all its doing is giving you cheap jump scares through its music. Seriously every time the camera hovered over the monsters it gives us the typical jump scare music. The writing in the film is also really bad which may be a reason why most of the characters are unlikeable. This also is one of the most cliched predictable movies ever, I pretty much knew what was going to happen to every character as soon as they were introduced and it went down exactly how I thought it would. Also I noticed a lot of shaky cam and shoddy editing in scenes where the characters were being chased or attacked.

Overall Underwater was a film where if the director decided to go in a different direction, highlighting the claustrophobia of being trapped deep underwater and utilising Kristen Stewart's great performance into something more involved with this concept, Underwater could have been truly great, however we are left with a typical horror movie that you have seen in many different forms over the years with one good performance and that is from Kristen Stewart.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is a film that took me by surprise in every way, Tom hanks nailed the role of Mister Rogers showing that he truly deserves his Oscar Nomination, however I was also delightfully surprised by Matthew Rhys who gives a performance that shook me to the core, which is only enhanced by Marielle Heller's excellent direction and Noah Harpster and Michah Fitzerman-Blue's fantastic screenplay. This film felt therapeutic to me, the person that Rhys plays Lloyd Vogel was a character that I resonated with in too many ways. The film to me does an excellent job at showcasing depression and how it can impact relationships, your reputation and the ways we handle it also showcasing how important it is to have someone to talk to when these times are tough and how much that can turn things around. I also really liked the way scenes transitioned as if they were models used in Mister Roger's show, most of the bold decisions used in some sequences in the film I loved however I do not want to spoil them.

On the negative side of things, I thought the score just didn't match the way things were playing out on screen which I thought was quite jarring at times and there were very short spurts of the film being quite slow and some scenes going for longer than what they needed to be.

Overall, A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is one of the best written films of the year, which is only magnified by the excellent performances, which talk about important topics that I think need to be mentioned more. A moving film that felt deeply personal to me and makes it a film I won't ever forget.

Lest just start by saying the performances for this film are good to great, I found Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie gave great performances that made this film more enjoyable to watch. The makeup and hair styling is also fantastic and Oscar Worthy making the actors look very similar to their real life counterparts. This movie also had a few moments that were powerful to watch at times and showed some of the awful things that happened at fox news when Roger Ailes was CEO.

However I found this film to be quite disappointing, as it showed glimpses of being powerful and really reinforcing the message its trying to send us about the me too movement, it doesn't do it enough and overall feels like a very surface level retelling. I would have liked to have seen more about Roger Ailes and why he decided to sexually harass these women, as well as explored all the characters deeper and how they have dealt with the trauma they have experienced, the only character that did this was Margot Robbie's who was made up. But I found the scenes that explored it deeper the most compelling of the film. Also the film decides to slam Donald Trump a little too much at times which is frustrating to see because it doesn't feel too relevant to the events of the film. The implementation of Nicole Kidman's character was also frustrating as we are supposed to sympathise with her but she doesn't really do anything to win us over.

Overall I can't help but feel disappointed in Bombshell it kept me at arms length the whole film and showed me a surface level retelling of these events, that makes me wonder what was the point of the movie. The message it is trying to tell us just doesn't quite hit home because it feels like it is afraid of exploring these horrible events further. Charlize Theron, and Margot Robbie give great performances and the makeup is fantastic I just wished the story could back up these great elements.

1917, is a war film that adds something completely new and unique to the war genre. The idea of making it look like one take is genius, the cinematography is by far the best of the year, as it immerses you deeply into the film and the characters that make you almost feel like you are there on this journey. The film also has a moving ending that had me mesmerised by the time the credits rolled, that is due to the cinematography and the performances given in the film which were very strong, ending on one of the most nicest shots I have seen this year with a quiet moment that says so much when speaking so little. The production, and costume design were also fantastic and the score only enhances your immersion which is exactly what you want in a score.

The weak parts to the film however, were there wasn't the greatest character building, especially in moments early on in the film, where I was supposed to feel some kind of emotion I didn't because the character development early on isn't the greatest. I believe as the film progressed this issue eventually sorted itself out which was nice, and also there were quiet moments in the film that felt they dragged on for way too long and needed to be shortened down a little to make a tighter packaged film.

Overall 1917 is a film that I found used its cinematography in fantastic fashion and creates a war film that stands up with some of the best, due to its incredible 3rd act. This is pure film making class and will be something that will be studied for aspiring cinematographers in the future.

To me Little Women is Greta Gerwig at her best, she has provided fantastic direction and has given us a fantastic adaptation of the novel. The performances are excellent no one gives a bad performance, with the stand outs being Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet and Florence Pugh who continues to give great performances in a breakout year. The costume and production design is fantastic and the score provided Alexandre Desplat is phenomenal. The emotional payoffs are fantastic, breaking your heart and then warming it at times.

There are a couple of flaws with the film however, such as: There are time jumps throughout the movie that took me roughly 20 minutes to figure out when there was a flashback or when we were in the present, and the film did feel a little too long at times.

Overall Little Women was an absolute delight to watch, due to its sensational performances, direction and technical applications. I did not expect to love this film as much as I did but i am glad that i did, and gives Greta Gerwig her best film yet.

This is such a weird film that has a lot of flaws and makes me question its existence at times, the CGI used is just awful the cats hands weren't even catlike at all making it look like the actors were just wearing some weird cat suits. The story is a jumbled mess that makes no sense and is barely coherent and makes me think if they took out the 20 minutes worth of celebrity cameos they could have created a decent enough story. This film like Les Miserables uses lyrics instead of dialogue but in this instance it just doesn't work. Most of the 2nd act was extremely boring and had me checking my watch, and I think impatient viewers will leave the theatre if they go to see it because of how boring it is.

However I don't think its a complete dumpster fire, the songs (even though they were adapted from the original play) were nice to listen to especially Taylor Swifts song, also Jennifer Hudson has a part at the end which is quite nice and showed some promise but the pay off wasn't quite as good as what it should have been as they spent too much time messing around with the plot instead of developing a worthwhile arc for her character. I though that Idris Elbas character was interesting enough as well and thought most of his scenes were a nice distraction from some of the garbage shown. The production design was also very pretty and nice to look at giving the characters a nice background setting.

Overall Cats is a poor movie and has some complete garbage in it like its absolutely awful use of CGI and presenting one of the most messiest stories put to film this year but it did have enough moments to keep me watching until the end.

Firstly with this review i'll start off with the positives. The most consistently good thing to me in this film is Jonathon Pryce's performance, he was comedic when he needed to be as well as being serious in the moments that required it, Anthony Hopkins was also good but to me he wasn't as good as what Pryce was. Technical aspects of the film such as: The editing were exceptional making this a very well made and polished film. There is also a small sequence in during the credits which I thought was one of the best moments of the film.

However, I just couldn't connect with the story told if you're someone who isn't interested in the subject matter of the popes this won't win you over and you will most likely find this a boring one to watch. At times the story is really slow where at points I was checking to see how much longer I had to watch the film until it ended, which is a shame because I wanted to like it and be on board with the positive reception that the film has gotten but it just never did that for me. The cinematography while good for most of the film had some really bad handheld shots which felt amateurish, there can be great moments where handheld can be effective but this movie just doesn't execute it all that well. Lastly I just didn't buy into its big revelations and wasn't all that compelled even though the film felt like it wanted me to be emotionally invested during these sequences.

Overall the two popes while being an exceptionally crafted film that has good performances it doesn't have a compelling enough story to back this up. Once again if you are not interested in this subject matter you most likely won't connect with the story.

Firstly does this episode or this trilogy live up to the original, no but was it really ever going to. Setting those expectations aside this is quite an enjoyable and fun Star Wars film that tries a couple of new concepts and throws out new ideas that I thought were really cool to watch. If you loved the dynamic between Ben Solo and Rey in the past two movies you'll love this one as it takes that further in ways that I thought were fitting for both characters. Adam driver gives the best performance in this film which is to be expected because of how fantastic of an actor he is. I thought the conclusion of the film was fitting for this trilogy and I was satisfied with the way it ended.

However there are some other concepts in this film that were silly and at times undercut the consequences of the original trilogy. This film like the force awakens is sometimes scared to pursue the original concepts this trilogy has had to offer, and decided to shove nostalgia and cheesy references to the old movies which I found to be quite annoying at times. I also found that most of the storyline covered with the resistance was boring, forgettable, and generic, and had me dying to go back and see what Rey or Ben Solo were doing. There is also an ongoing mystery that Finn has where he knows something that no one else does which gets completely forgotten about and left me wanting to know what he knew as it seemed like a big revelation. The cinematography at times was awful there was a lot of shaky cam and flashing which felt quite amateurish and had me disorientated as to what was going on, this mainly happens during the 1st act.

I came out of this film overall happy with how it ended but it is by no means perfect and I do understand how people would dislike it. However if you go into this film not wanting to hate it and actually have a good time with it you might just have yourself some fun watching this conclusion to quite an entertaining Star wars trilogy.

The report is a film I found to be quite OK, however it is very flawed as a film. There are too many events that are covered in this film and to me it doesn't feel like it brings many of them to justice. There are some very abrupt time jumps as well that pull you out of your immersion at times. Also with all the events this film covers it still feels like it drags on for too long and it just makes me think of all the potential this film had to be great. A lot of the problems this film has, do mainly stem from writing and directing issues, some scenes earlier in the film use shaky cam which I didn't think were appropriate for the scenes that used it.

But there are positives to this film too, the performances are great as to be expected from a cast like this especially Adam Driver who is having a fantastic year, and brings about another great performance. Also I did find the subject matter interesting, eye opening and confronting at times and I loved those aspects of this film, I just wasn't a fan of how it executed these events.

Overall, I found the report to be an OK film but I just wished it had executed its use of the fascinating subject matter better, as well as taking advantage of the great performances and actors that worked on this film.

Marriage Story is the most heartbreaking film I may have ever seen, Both Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson give the best performances of their careers which is saying a lot for these two as they are both phenomenal actors. Noah Baumbachs direction is also fantastic, the choice of using 35mm made it feel like old family photos that you look through as you get older. But the exploration of the divorce, how both parties behave and react to all the legal proceedings take place were really interesting and thought provoking. Baumbach's screenplay is also fantastic, the arguments in this film felt authentic and real, and was extremely confronting to watch at times. There is one scene in particular which I truly believe is the best scene i have experienced in the past 5 years. I loved this film and found it emotionally gripping and feels like a piece of work so personal that I felt that only Baumbach could pull off this film the way he did.

The only nitpicky thing I have with this film is in the beginning some of the scenes are a little on the long side and draw out for too long, however I think this was due to the fact that I hadn't connected with the characters yet and wasn't as immersed as I was until the film started building momentum, however when it does get the momentum the nitpicks I had at the start weren't even worth worrying about.

Marriage Story is one of the best films this year showcasing absolutely world class acting, directing and writing. I went through a whole range of emotions when watching this and I loved it. This film is a true masterpiece.