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The Last of Us (2023)
Gamers vs Nongamers
For how short the season is, the show spends an inordinate amount of time on expanding the stories of side characters from the game, or entirely new characters. Theoretically, these provide more depth to the world, but the characters are introduced and dispatched with such haste that it's difficult to argue that. Episode 3 in a vacuum is probably the most successful of these, but in context of the larger show is too inconsequential to justify dedicating it to the longest episode of 9.
If the show had given more time for these subplots to develop and interweave themselves with the main story of Joel and Ellie's relationship (which was what made the game so great), it would have served this purpose much more successfully and elevated the adaptation. I think ideally to achieve this the story should have been over at least two seasons. It's possible that HBO was wary of committing to that given the unsuccessful history of video game adaptations. However, if that's the case, it falls on the creators for mismanaging the time allotted to them.
Ultimately, in what we ended up getting, Joel and Ellie's development is inconsistent and inorganic, particularly because the world of the show is far too easy; the few times the zombies are shown, they're presented so ham handedly as to hardly feel like any kind of persistent threat, and human combat is largely minimal, brief, and sanitized . For the majority of the show, the only thing that gives Joel and Ellie any reason to bond is proximity.
Going into the show, I fully accepted that Pascal and Ramsey were not going to be the Joel and Ellie that I knew, and looked forward to their interpretations. Pascal was largely successful, while Ramsey was decent for a child actress doing what most closely resembled an irreverent imitation. The game does have the unfair advantage of mocap allowing a more refined adult actress to provide the performance for Ellie. As such, I'm not going to judge Ramsey too harshly.
Its seems opinion of this show is, by and large, going to be determined by if you're someone who has played the game, or if you're someone who hasn't been tainted by exposure to the superior version of The Last of Us. However, even when keeping aside my experience with the game, I still believe the show is just objectively mediocre. I have my suspicions for others' high opinions of the show, and imagine that will lead to some down votes for this review to spite my (non-existent) bigotry.
In summary, the show mismanages it's time to the detriment of what should be the heart and soul of the story, in a low-stakes, toothless, capably performed adaptation.
You People (2023)
White Guilt: The Movie
Late 30s year old Jonah Hill, playing a 35 year old, apologizes for not being his hero - a disadvantaged 17 year old black guy. That pretty much surmises Hill's mindset writing this plot. Cringe as hell, and a waste of talent. Crazy since Hill wrote and directed the thoroughly authentic and personal Mid90s. I think it speaks volumes that despite clearly trying to appeal to the Black population, the reviews here show them thoroughly rejecting this movie. I will say that if you approach this similarly to how you might White Lotus, accepting that every character (including background extras) is just the worst, you may get a handful of laughs out of the over long runtime. Ultimately, this movie was completely unnecessary as we already have the far superior, and still relevant, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Even if you want something newer, the remake Guess Who (starring Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac) is still better and more authentic than this.
Pearl (2022)
Middle of the road
The best I can say about Pearl is that I do not regret the time and money I spent on seeing it. By no means is it a bad film, but merely one that was capably conceived and executed. The praise for Goth's performance confounds me, as I believe it epitomizes the film; It does what is required of it, but never elevates the script (which feels every bit as impromptu as it has been reported to be). Goth's performance as Pearl leaves her as little more than a character on the screen, not feeling quite alive. This could be explained away by rationalizing that Pearl is never doing more than playing a character. However, that does not mesh with the film (as well as counterpart X) in which we see, and it is explicitly stated, that Pearl is not the cold, soulless monster, a la Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers; Rather, she, supposedly, has deep, vibrant emotions, the issue being that they are of a grandiose and murderous bent. I would not be surprised if the one-take monologue was inserted as a way to tell the audience what had been ineffectively shown. Concerning the good, the score was thoroughly enjoyable, and served well as a compliment for Goth's emotionally languid performance. As well, the general mise-en-scene was fun, but did not live up to the promise of the cold opening and credits. An attempt was made to transport the film back to those of the era depicted in the film, but falls short. Contributing to the lack of immersion would have to be that despite the parallels to the Spanish Flu Epidemic, the film is rather overt in COVID references. I cannot fault it as being unnecessary as it was used to drive certain parts of the narrative, but it could have been handled better.
It Chapter Two (2019)
Meh is the best descriptor
It failed to capture the most effective part of the first movie: the chemistry of the ensemble. A large portion of that may be due to the film spending a large amount of its time keeping the characters separated, for no real reason other than them choosing to not be together. I suppose it also wanted to show each individual character's torment, but it is certainly possible to do that while also having them interacting (and growing) with the others.
Another downside is that during these individual (drawn out) moments, there's a heavy focus on revisiting the character's past, which attempts to flesh out each one more, but is more of just rehashing what we learnt in the first film. Ultimately the effect is sacrificing the development of the characters, which never really happens except for a couple throw away moments in the epilogue section, in favor of giving a drop more depth to what has already been established about the character.
When the cast finally comes together as a full ensemble in the last third of the movie, it still feels more like individual performances happening simultaneously, rather than a group naturally interacting. However, the film is still too afraid to have them stick together for too long. This is mostly to tie up the loose ends of various character relationships, though is fails to really make the most of those moments and use them to their fullest advantage, both from a character arc perspective, but also from a build suspense/horror perspective. Instead, it is more interested in spectacle. I do have to admit that the CGI does look incredible.