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Reviews
Breach (2020)
What a frustrating waste of time and talent
I have actually watched this movie twice, and trust me when I tell you that it doesn't get any better with repeat viewings.
I have nothing against low-budget indie flicks, and I have watched enough of them to know that they can be just as enjoyable as big budget, studio-backed blockbusters - but this one did everything wrong.
Okay, almost everything, because I actually liked the set design and the lighting; I'm a sucker for grimy, grungy sci-fi settings, and Breach delivered on that front. Some commenters have mentioned how cheap the sets looked, but I used to be a Trekkie; I was 100% willing to run with a reactor consisting of three red neon lines, and accept the general aesthetic as fitting a ship where crew comfort wasn't exactly a priority.
But everything else was a disappointment.
Plenty of other people have already mentioned the CGI and the poor editing and pacing, but the filmmakers apparently didn't even care about a trivial little thing called 'continuity' either, and at one point, Commander Stanley is referred to as 'Captain Stanley'. It's such a small thing, so why couldn't they be bothered to get it right?
And speaking of small things; they even managed to spell one of their own actors' names wrong at the start of the movie, which is a very special kind of cluck up.
The fight choreography is also poor, but I wasn't expecting much in that department anyway. Nor was I expecting much from Mr Willis, and yet he still somehow managed to disappoint.
In fact, the acting is the most frustrating part of the entire experience--even more so than the storyline, which we'll get to next. The filmmakers squandered good actors, although how much of the blame should lie with the writers and how much with the director, I don't know. What I do know is that someone should have:
a) told Tim V Murphy and Thomas Jane to tone down their cartoonish accents.
b) given Rachel Nichols more to do than be Willis' little shadow.
c) actually told the actors what kind of movie they were making, because this movie just doesn't know what it wants to be.
Is it a serious space-based horror? Kearsley, Clementi, Nichols and Mulvey seem to think so, and they're all (re)acting accordingly. Then you have Murphy and Jane who are just chewing the scenery because apparently they didn't get the same memo, and the aforementioned Mr Willis who is just there, whose acting ranges from 'grumpy' to 'surly' regardless of what is supposedly happening around him, and whose one-liners are simply cringe-inducing.
And the less said about the Admiral's 'elite commando team', the better...
Now, onto the storyline, and I was again 100% onboard with the premise. I didn't care that it wasn't original, so long as it was well-executed and entertaining. Well, it was neither. Character motivations are paper-thin at best, incomprehensible at worst. Characterisations seem to flip on a dime, too - so you didn't care about leaving 19 billion people behind, but you DO care about 300,000 on this ship? Right. The alien gets free shortly after leaving Earth but waits months to start wreaking havoc? Give me a break.
You know, writing all this out makes me think something must have happened at some stage of the production. Last-minute rewrites, perhaps. I just can't believe that anyone would set out to create the mess this turned out to be, unless they were aiming to deliberately tank some careers, and I feel genuinely sorry for the less well-known cast members; I hope they don't end up being haunted by this thing.
Lastly, I'd say watch it drunk, but I tried that the second time round and it was still bad. So just...avoid it.
Mystery Road (2018)
I wanted to love this, but I just couldn't
NB: review based off S2 only.
Now maybe I should have started with the movies and watched S1 before I watched this, or maybe I should have known better than to buy into the hype. At any rate, I had high expectations going into this show, and they were not met.
That's not to say that Mystery Road is a bad show. It isn't. It is truly beautifully shot, the music is tremendous, and some of the acting is fantastic. But three things really let it down:
1. Aaron Pedersen: I keep hearing about how charismatic this guy is, and yet I couldn't seen an ounce of it shining through in this performance. I get that he's meant to be playing a strong silent type, but couldn't the writers/directors have allowed his character just one more emotion besides 'surly'?
He's playing the main character, the protagonist, and yet he's being out-acted by everyone else who shares screen-time with him. The landscape has more personality than this guy!
2. The plot: There's too much of it. I'm still not sure how the archaeological dig and subsequent cold case investigation linked to the main plot, if it did at all. The story needed to be tightened given that the show-runners had just six episodes to play with.
3. The writing: Is poor, it is. Jay apparently has little clue as to who the big bad is, so halfway through the series a chap from Internal Affairs turns up so that he can impart some very important info, and then just basically disappears again. Some blokes in dodgy Hawaiian shirts turn up out of the blue, too, for no other reason than so Jay can have a cool-looking shoot-out at a motel. The big bad's face-heel turn is frankly ridiculous, although credit to Callan Mulvey who has enough presence on screen to sell it (seriously, it's the best moment in the entire series). Said big bad then spends the last episode slipping out of Jay's grasp--only to be killed at the last moment thanks to Jay's amazing marksmanship. It's a neat ending, but you know what would have been a really powerful ending? Villain gets away and in S3 Jay has to deal with the personal and professional ramifications of failure.
That said, it's not a bad show. Some of the supporting cast are fantastic, even though many of them don't get very much to do. Tasma Walton's ex-wife is stellar, but what should be emotionally powerful moments with Jay fall flat because Jay just...doesn't really react. Jada Alberts is so compelling to watch as Fran, but she's relegated to Plot B, and both she and it don't have enough time to really shine.
All in all, a mixed bag. I liked it well enough, but I wouldn't watch it again and it doesn't encourage me to go watch anything else in this series.
Desolate (2018)
A solid indie feature that deserves more love than it's getting here
The reviews for this one seem oddly polarised, so let me state at the beginning that it is neither a 10/10 feature NOR a 1/10.
I loved the idea of a dystopian near-future film taking place in a rural/agricultural setting, and Desolate didn't disappoint. The location chosen is fantastic, the landscape echoing the barrenness and emptiness within the characters. The film is shot beautifully--even if some shots are not as polished as they might be if this were not an indie production.
Speaking of characters, the cast did a wonderful job. Desolate doesn't give you all the answers in exposition dumps; it's a slice of life film in that you need to piece together the story of the world they're inhabiting yourself. I like this, but I admit it can be frustrating.
Will Brittain's Billy starts the story as a kid who is not cut out for the brutal world he's inhabiting, but despite what he does to survive, doesn't lose the inherent goodness that sets him apart from other
characters.
Bill Tangradi brings a solemn air of nostalgia to Kyle. He remembers the time before the drought, before their father turned to Stone (pun intended). His is a tragic and somewhat pathetic figure.
Jonathan Rosenthal didn't get enough screentime to really shine as Parker, while Tyson Ritter struck the only bum note as Ned, sometimes playing him a little too overwrought early on in the movie although towards the end he, too, comes into his own as a character.
Natasha Bassett is relegated to role of damsel in distress, but she imbues Kayla with the same innocence that sets Billy apart, and her suffering truly is heart-wrenching.
Callan Mulvey's Van is a mysterious figure. He's in deep with the villains, but he plays all sides; doing whatever it takes to bring in the dollar bills. The movie hints at a past as a lawman in some capacity, but stubbornly refuses to make figuring him out easy. It's a masterful turn by a character actor at the peak of his game.
Special mention has to go to Mark Kassen as Raymond, who is quite a treat to watch-at least for a short while.
The plot is convoluted, and in places somewhat incomprehensible. At one point the characters stop on a road that would seemingly lead them to safety, and it's not clear why they can't continue along it.
But all in all, Desolate is a very accomplished debut feature; it's not by any means perfect, but it marks the people behind it as ones to watch in future.