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The Beguiled (2017)
8/10
Suspense, Bewildering, and Relatable in a way
26 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I have always been very anticipated to see Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled ever since she successfully won the 2017 best director of Cannes. Note that I'm not a fan of all of her movies, i.e. Somewhere, but I'm a big fan of Lost In Translation and I also quite like The Virgin Suicides.

This movie tells about the life of a group of girls, living in a boarding girl's school during the war. What's most interesting about the movie itself is how Coppola succeeded to create a wide picture for the viewers to imagine what it was like to be one of the girls trapped under the same roof during the colonial times. The cinematography and the close up shot angles are perfect to describe the intensity of each scene, the picturesque view, accompanied with the absence of background music which frankly worked brilliantly, in terms of creating a more vivid and uplifting moments.

Following the movie stars a corporal from an army, McBurney (Collin Farrel), the only guy amongst other girls stuck in the house. Saying so, Coppola tried to plant the viewers to picture the feeling of being each of the characters. The first half of the movie mostly highlights on the girls' routine until when they accept the corporal to be a part of the house as well in their everyday lives in quite a slow pace.

The movie started to get satirically funny as the girls get secretly very flirtatious towards the corporal. During this second half is where it got more ardent as the truth came at hand, where the corporal's favourite girl (Kirsten Dunst) also felt in a way 'stuck' in the world they both didn't want to be a part of, making both of them closely connected with each other romantically. From then on, the other girls started to feel envy with the other, bearing in mind that the corporal is also a philander and initially had something going on with one of the girls (Elle Fanning).

I cannot say that I loved every second of it and understands how people may say it as 'boring'. I also dislike the failure of the actresses to send such message, hence sometimes can be seen as quite pretentious. In all, Coppola's remake of 1971 Clint Eastwood classic remains as original, I mean not of the plot originality, but her way of telling a story in retrospect. The conflicts brought in this movie she directed seem somewhat very possible from a mix between anger, laughter, sorrow, and envy having to come from that background (the girls' psychologically). It's certainly worth the watch and she can't possibly win a 'Cannes' with this one.
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7/10
Excellent job, Cumberbatch!
13 January 2015
The Imitation Game follows a history of the journey of a man called Alan Turing during the World War II in discovering a machine called "Christopher" that now would be called "computers". Alan Turing, played by Benedict Cumberbatch himself is a so-called genius student graduating from Cambridge, who then applied for a "secret job" for the government in order to win the war against Germany.

He is one of some interns that got in, including a single, smart and pretty woman, Jean Clarke, played by Keira Knightley. Alan Turing found a chemistry with her, being able to talk to her the most than the other interns, but not in a romantic way. To make long story short, The British finally won the war because of the help of "Christopher" and in the end, they were asked to destroy it.

Indeed Benedict Cumberbatch did a stunning performance playing an anti- social and odd prodigy in the film. Keira Knightley's appearance as a supporting artist was also quite well. The Imitation Game is a biography film that is able to capture its audience in such a perfect pace. It has the capability to make audience to feel it is just a mere movie, rather than a history-biography movie.

Although there are some conversations I didn't agree to be very interesting, but overall it is a story that changes your perspective to see the "odd" ones. Truly, "sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine."
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7/10
Remarkably Recommended and Meaningful
6 October 2013
First off, I'd like to say that this is my first ever movie review. I'd been prolonging until I find a non-blockbuster movie that can really caught me deeply and The Kings of Summer happened to be the one.

The acting in this movie is basically original, starring Nick Robinson who played Joe perfectly well as a fifteen year-old desperately wanting to get out of his dad's house under his rules just like a typical teenager. Then there's his best friend, Gabriel Basso who played as Patrick who loves his parents but also desperately wanting to get out of their house because of how their parents treat him as a child. Moises Arias as Biaggio, who I think really suits for the role of a physically small friend of both of them who appeared out of nowhere and could really get things funny because he's that lovable and warm. Joe's dad, Nick Offerman as Frank, played a great grumpy father who gets mad and cranky easily in this movie and then there's Erin Moriarty as Kelly, which plays the girl who Joe had a crush on.

The movie at first started just like any ordinary drama movie, but the various shots and angles made it look pretty smart in the beginning. As you watch longer, the movie started getting interesting to where it's going, although you can really guess what will happen next. The Kings of Summer with its "Into The Wild" theme is packed with humor and a bunch of emotional feeling will be involved throughout the movie. Another plus point for this movie is the selection of songs in the background or soundtracks, how each song suits perfectly well based on the actions the characters were doing which really built up my point of view towards the movie.

What caught me the most is how the movie is directed and made it as if he really wants us to feel to be like each one of the character involved there. The shots on the scenery and "wild" views in the forest really succeeded on making me re-think and went deeper about how there's more to the movie than what I've actually seen. The movie does have some really cliché teenager scenes, however, I like how it stays original and remain unpretentious by showing that there's a big chance that conflicts may happen between friends and families but then in the end you will always come back to them, by not having all the cheesy fights nor a corny truce. It sticks to reality and shows people that it is truly what it is.

Not considering how old you are, I really recommend you to watch this movie with anyone for you're about to feel that youth blood pumping down your streams and actually get something out of it. Praise for Jordan Vogt-Roberts for making this movie as perfect, my eyes were glistening right at the very last scene of the movie and at the same time drawing a smile on my face.
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