Reviews

After his first directors debut 2 years ago, I did not know what to expect from his second movie, US. Jordan Peele managed to make a name for himself back in 2017 by creating a refreshingly new and unique horror movie brining horror fans around the globe to marvel and discuss his award winning movie.

When I heard he was making a new movie, I had mixed feelings. After he spent many years writing get out, he had managed to write a new movie in less than a year. Many talented directors make the common mistake of rushing their second movie and not putting their soul into it, resulting in a disappointing second movie, which can damage their careers as the first two movies are crucial part of becoming a visionary modern phenomenon.

However I should have not been worried. Jordan Peele seems to have mastered the act of filmmaking in a short period of time. His second movie is quite frankly, as good, or even better in some aspects than his first movie.

Us is a movie that explores one of the biggest fears of Jordan Peele's mind. What happens if you could see, yourself? He puts his fear on the big screen in a fresh and disturbing way, due to his unique writing and directing skills, and everyone else who worked on the movie with a clear passion for what they do. But the performances of the actors within this movie were exceptional.

All the actors in the movie did a fantastic job. There was not a single moment where I was pulled out of the movie because of a slip up or unconvincing portrayal of one's character. But there was an actor, or should I say actress whose performance is worthy of winning an Oscar.

Lupita Nyong'o's performance is not one I will be forgetting anytime soon. Portraying a single role requires a copious amount of experience, dedication, and perseverance. But due to the nature of the movie, she had to deal with playing the characters of two characters in one movie. Both of which felt completely different from the other, with Adelaide being relatable and human, and red sending shivers down your spine, the two characters couldn't be any more different.

The soundtrack was perfected too. Michael Abels, a 56 year old musician's first movie was get out, which he delivered a simplistic but memorable score, but with US, he managed to create such a disturbed masterpiece which suits the movie perfectly. It is a score that will burden your head for the next couple of days after seeing the movie.

From what I'm saying so far, this review seems to be a subjective 10/10. Not quite. The movie does have its flaws, which I cannot get into details due to spoilers, but one thing I would like to talk about is the ambiguity of the movie.

This movie is NOT for everyone. If you're looking for a movie to fill your 2 hours with a little bit of horror, this movie may not be what you're looking for. There are barely any jump scares throughout the movie, and the movie is very ambiguous. If you do not pay attention, the movie will not make any sense. This is a movie that requires you to pay all your attention, to every little detail, every little conversation, and one which is designed to spark conversations and debates. If you do not like the idea of having to figure out key parts of the movie on your own, this may not be for you.

Overall this movie has everything that most horror fans will appreciate, but does get a little too ambiguous at times which could cause confusion amongst casual audience goers.

8/10

Aqua-man is yet another DCEU movie that manages to catch a fantastic start, but gradually declines into a messy generic movie which only exists to appeal to mainstream audiences.

The same old formula has once again been used, but this time our hero is Aqua-man, and for the first time ever, we have an underwater super hero movie. I must say the way the managed to portray the underwater world exceeded my expectations as I have not seen anything like it before, but unfortunately it's one of the high points of this flick.

The movie begins like your average Disney movie. Two characters fall in love, have a child, and they get separated. This child is aquaman, a boy with seemingly unique powers of being able to communicate with sea creatures.

Fast forward to when he's grown up, aquaman is your generic character that is slowly transferred into a hero, one that is the last hope of stopping the war versus the Atlantans and the "earth people".

Unfortunately I can't really go any further without spoiling the plot (there's not really that much to spoil) but let's just say you can predict everything that happens in the movie, including some of the dialogue.

The movie feels one linear. One dimensional. There is no sense of wonder, no atmospheric environment, nothing. The movie has managed to bring the best cgi within the DCEU universe, but at the end of the day, it just feels like a movie.

There is honestly nothing going for this movie. It just manages to succeed at not being as bad as some of DC's lowest (suicide squad, justice league). It plays everything safe, sticking to the core roots that the audience seems to enjoy and want out of a movie, regardless or not if they have seen it a thousand times.

The writing is poor, the screenplay is poor, the cgi is fantastic, the acting is bland, and the movie lacks any memorable moments except for the eye candy fight near the end of the movie.

Overall if you're okay with the same old movie following the same old formula, you can't really go wrong with this movie. But for someone who is sick and tired of the same stuff over and over again, I'm going to have to give this movie a 4/10.

I'm a huge fan of art films. This film is definitely inspired by taxi driver and that's one of the reasons why it caught my attention as I love that movie, but this film is a huge let down. It's not good. The acting is 10/10, the cinematography and camerawork is 10/10, but the plot is horrible and boring. Take blade runner 2049's slow (but awesome) pacing and slow it down, throw in an uninteresting predictable repetitive recycled plot we've seen a billion times which could have been told within 20 minutes, give the main character psychological traumatic issues and show us random crap that's going on in his mind, and you have this movie. It brings nothing new to the table and is done in a way that simply bores you. I love dramas, I know this movie is one, an art drama film, but there Wonder, no suspense, no clever conversations, no anything really. I felt like I was watching a long video demonstrating Joaquin Phoenix's phenomenal acting.

In a nutshell this film is a drama with your typical basic story line with phenomenal acting that you will forget within a couple of days. I can only recommend it if love movies with beautiful cinematography and are a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix, but if you're looking for an original unforgettable drama, a crime revenge film, or whatever else you were expecting, I recommend staying away from this.