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True Detective (2014)
Disclaimer: This review is only about season one.
Season 1 of True Detective is some of the best TV I have ever seen. It is stellar, particularly in our two main characters' chemistry. But first, let's talk about the technical side. The director absolutely excels at atmosphere, excellently contrasting the clean and professional workplaces and the gritty, underground areas of Louisiana. Although this is great, where the show shines is the two main characters' chemistries, some of the best I've ever seen. The two characters are almost polar opposites, with Marty Hart having the normal outlook on life, but Rustin Cohle having the philosophical and pessimistic viewpoint. Since Rust has a lot of interesting aspects to his character because of his philosophies, Marty has his own struggles, crafting a unique character on his own. However, these well-written characters reach their peaks when the "regular guy" and the "sociopathic weirdo" collide, as they do not get along, sometimes straight-out hating each other, but what forms their compatibility is their dedication to their jobs. This is the genius character writing of True Detective.
Green Room (2015)
Green Room Movie Review
The main theme of this film, shared with Jeremy Saulnier's other movie, Blue Ruin, is about placing characters in high-stakes situations in which they have virtually no experience. In Green Room, this worked at times, when characters figured out solutions to their situations in interesting and entertaining ways, but didn't work in others, when characters made decisions so idiotic that they weren't relatable as fictional people, making certain characters come off as expendable. Since this didn't happen much, this film was still quite entertaining due to the tension of certain situations which, as a respect to the readers who will either mark this review as helpful or unhelpful based on whether they agree or not, I will not spoil. What weighed it way down, unfortunately, was the poor actors who seemingly stuck to one terrified or distraught facial expression and stuck to it for one or two scenes of tension. When the scenes had lower stakes, however, the film became dreadfully boring as the characters took turns saying lines in a very casual way. This could have been improved upon immensely by simply having the actors overlap each others' lines of dialogue. Therefore, Green Room had much more positives than Saulnier's last film, but still an abundant amount of issues.
Moon (2009)
Thank you, Moon!
Moon is one of the most refreshing films I have ever seen. Since it was made in 2009, it was a complete joy to see a film that respected what the science fiction genre was all about. It's not often that we get a sci-fi taking place outside of earth that doesn't rely on aliens and explosions to be considered within it's genre. It's a smart, slow building psychological thriller that puts in the effort to include mind-bending elements into its innovative storyline. Yet another thing I found refreshing is how GERTY, the artificial intelligence of the film, was presented (besides the character being played by Kevin Spacey). What impressed me is that the movie didn't call for it's viewers to be emotionally involved with the robotic character, which makes some modern movies fail. Because of all this, the film reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is way before my time. Luckily for my generation, Moon is not.
Saul fia (2015)
Criminally overlooked film that packs an insane punch
This film more than deserved it's win for Best Foreign Film, and I think it was much better than everything nominated for Best Picture. It's a film that uses short focal length and excellent tracking to trap us into the perspective of a Holocaust victim. Lazlo Nemes has proved himself as an expert with the technical aspects of filmmaking through fantastic sound and set design. Through all of these achievements, he gives us a heart-wrenching gut-punch that stayed with me to this day. He truly is one-of-a-kind, as there is no directing style even close to what he has done with Son Of Saul. I will definitely keep my eye out for what he can do next.
Repulsion (1965)
Little bit disappointing for a Polanski film.
There were parts of this film I really loved, which include the fantastic staging for each shot and the amazing sound design that is almost a character itself. I also love movies in which the character is driven to madness (I actually watched this movie alone in my house, which was quite an experience, considering the subject matter.) The reason it didn't nearly live up to other Polanski films such as The Pianist and Chinatown is because of those occasional scare cues. That was a part of the film I hated because the rest of the background noise is very subtle and creeps up on you so well. I couldn't help but think of how overbearing they were and how well it would have worked without them. I would still recommend checking it out if you're a fan of psychological thrillers, but it isn't nearly Polanski's best.