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Micah-js22
Rating #1,000: Survivor, “Jellyfish 'n Chips”
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Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
Well Crafted and Engaging but At Times Alienating for Someone Not Intimately Familiar with Mr. Rogers
A biographical doc that's filled with touching and amusing anecdotes, but I think 94 minutes of neat anecdotes is all it really is. It never really amounts to much for me personally and there's very little flair in terms of style or presentation that would lift it higher than just being...okay. As someone who never really watched the show as a kid I felt that it pre-supposed a bit too much for me to follow alot of it as well. It was overall grafefully paced and well rehearsed enough for me to enjoy it a bit, but just a bit.
5/10
Directed by Morgan Neville
Doctor Strange (2016)
Engaging origin story with good visuals and Benedict Cumberbatch's charisma.
Bottom Line: This movie has a ton of things going for it! Its take on the genre is pretty fresh and it goes deeper in to personal struggle than most superhero movies do. There are parts where the narrative gets rocky, but Benedict Cumberbatch has charisma in spades to get the movie through the rough spots. The movie also goes all out on visual effects which can be the its strongest and weakest asset. The visual splendor creates some mind bending action scenes and add vivid detail to the mystic world of spell-casters that Strange inhabits. But sometimes it feels like the movie is more concerned with stunning visuals than it is with developing some key supporting characters (like Mads Mikkelsen's Kaecilus and Chiwetel Ejiofor's Mordo) that would have made it great.
Notes
-Although Benedict Cumberbatch has played plenty of genius characters in the past this still feels like new ground for him because no previous role has required him to be as emotionally vulnerable as this one. The movie does not hesitate to frequently knock Strange off of the pedestal of his genius, which gives him more depth then you would expect. This movie makes Cumberbatch more vulnerable in its first 30 minutes than BBC's Sherlock has dared to make him in three seasons of television.
-Although some of Strange's one-liners occasionally got a chuckle out of me, I could have done without them. Part of my hesitation to score Marvel movies highly comes from the fact that they all sort of feel the same. This movie is one of the few that's able to separate itself with its own unique vibe, and the only thing that breaks that immersion is the witty- but-disposable sense of humor so common in the Marvel cannon. (I know this a huge nitpick and 99.9% of people who will watch the movie won't care about this, but it took me out of the movie a bit in some parts so I thought it was worth noting)
-I think more would have been less in the case of the subplot with Rachel McAdams. It all resonated fine and it wasn't corny or anything, but I think putting the time spent on that into other areas would have more immediately benefited the movie.
-Most of the time dealing with supernatural or mystical can make a movie feel slightly derivative at best, and painfully preachy at worst. Not the case here! Doctor Strange is able to use its remarkable visuals and well timed jabs at clichés of movies that deal with these themes to give the movie a fresh take on people with magical powers. Possibly the first to do that on the big screen since the Harry Potter series.
-This movie is able to shake off a lot of problems common in superhero origin movies, but the unremarkable villain is not one of them. Mads Mikkelson struggles to find anything to do in the utterly generic character he is given. His backstory is one that's a cliché at this point, his dialog doesn't sparkle with any with or personality, and he isn't even particularly interesting in fight scenes.
-I would be remiss not to mention the action scenes which make full use of the movie's massive special effect budget. I can't compare them to Inception (apperently the most obvious influence to the visual style) because I haven't seen Inception. But to me it was a welcome inventive approach to comic book action. The way the scene twist and bends around provides unique perspectives and open up a lot of opportunity to make inventive use of character's mystical powers. Again I thought the effects were somewhat overused. At times it felt like the were using them just to make a spectacle and not to help the story. But after the movie I felt like doing improvised fake fights in the backyard with my brother so suffice it to say it did its job pretty well.
-Here's a moment that I thought was really clever and well-executed. Shortly after Strange gains the cloak of levitation and finally seems to fully realize his powers. He makes a mistake in battle that causes him and his partner to straight up run for their lives for the next five minutes. Following a scene where we see how much Strange has grown as a character, followed directly by a reminder of how far he has to go still was very impactful for me.
-Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo got short changed in terms of development. Which I wouldn't mind much if it weren't for the fact that the movie relies on him and Strange's relationship a lot in the last act and it sort of falls flat because they simply don't have enough screen time together to develop the necessary chemistry to make it work. Cumberbatch and Ejiofor are both great actors though so they sort of make it work in spite of all that.
SPOILERS BELOW
-Usually deaths of mentor figures in origin movies fall flat for me. I always see them coming from a stones throw away and it's been done so many times before that it's a cliché. But the death of The Aincent One really took me by surprise with how impactful it was. The mystique surrounding her character made her feel immortal, so it actually kind of caught me off guard. The way it happens is fairly unique and the character is able to wistfully reflect on her life, unlike most death scenes where the character is gasping for the breath to give there last words. Tilda Swinton acts the part very well and her words to Strange are some of the most resonant in the movie.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
A Rushed Partially Realized Vision
Bottom Line: There are a lot of good ideas here, but it struggles to convey 352 pages of text in two hours. The movie is still throwing new ideas and exposition at you midway through the third act, and almost no subplot feels like it gets its due development. The charisma provided by Tim Burton and the interesting premise make it decent, but the narrative is too all over the place to make it really good.
Notes
-The protagonist doesn't have any real personality or character. These young adult movies always try so hard to make the main character relateable, that they just end up with a dime- a-dozen completely vanilla bore of a character. That's what happened here. It's a shame because a strong, well defined, somewhat unique lead can be the difference between a Fault in Our Stars and a Paper Towns.
-The movie rushes into trying to develop its fantasy world, and leaves behind any thought to the main character's past. Although it makes an effort to establish a conflicts such as a rocky relationship with his father, trouble fitting in at school, grieving his grandfather's death, it's all intermingled with exposition which makes it feel like just an afterthought.
-I wish there were more elements of mystery and discovery. So much of the story is just told directly to the audience with no subtext or wonder involved.
-The Father character is so inconsistent and unrealistic. One minute you're supposed to hate him for being passive, and not involved enough in his son's life. The next you're supposed to hate him for being possessive, and being too involved in his son's life. It's a shame because the actor really does a fine job of selling it all in spite of the poor writing. He could have been such an emotional asset for the movie had the part been written better.
-Since there are both child and teenage characters in this movie it can walk the line between themes of childhood and adolescence like few other movies of its type can. And that's a super interesting vibe. If this movie were actually good it could have been awesome, like the perfect middle ground between something like The Hunger Games and something like the first few Harry Potter movies.
-The makeup is way overdone. None of the peculiar children or Miss Peregrine look like real people.
-It's cool that all the children's powers show something about their character and give them a personality. They aren't just there for no reason.
-The movie decides to develop the kids more than Miss Peregrine herself. But Eva Green is able to make the role interesting regardless.
-Its hard to tell if Asa Butterfield just sucks or the part is just unsalvageable.
-The world needs more of Samuel L. Jackson as an over-the-top villain. His charisma gives the conclusion some much needed rigor.
-The children's powers were underutilized in the final action sequence.
-That romantic subplot fell sooooo flat.
SPOILERS
-The twist makes no sense. How would Sam Jackson be able to get a degree in psychology and get a job working in Jake's community so quickly.
Finding Vivian Maier (2013)
Charming, wonderfully put together documentary occasionally mistakes the mystery behind the art for the art itself.
Finding Vivian Maier shoulders the task of condensing a life time of over 100,000 photographs in to an hour and a half. And overall it does a pretty good job, providing a lovely showcase of the combination of old school charm and timeless beauty that has given Maier such posthumous popularity. Each shot also does a good job of contributing to the analysis of what the content of the photographs say about the woman behind the camera. The interviews are also full of much lively character. And the insight they are able to gather at times from simple things like facial expressions and tonal delivery is reminiscent of the distinct human touch present in Vivian's photographs. The only thing holding it back from being absolutely fantastic is how overplayed the mysterious aspects of Maier's life can be. Given that the mysteriousness behind her work is what gives it much of its allure, the film makers seem reluctant to fully realize Vivian as a concrete character. In a movie filled with thought provoking questions Finding Vivian Maier scarcely provides any answers. Why are the surviving members of Maier's family barely interviewed at all? Why are the thousands of recordings of Vivian speaking only used sparingly? Why does the film only dedicate a few minutes to the signs of mental disorders and abusive tendencies Maier showed? I can only conclude that the film makers wanted the mysticism that surrounds Maier to remain in tact. The movie still provides a reasonably good account of Maier's life, there are just some points where I wish there was more closure and fully realized concepts . It is still worth watching though for the thoughtfully put together photographs and interviews.